


Heart You

by Writer_Markilyn



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - "You", Baekhyun works as a paralegal, Bottom Byun Baekhyun, Chanyeol works as an IT, Eventual Smut, Jealousy, M/M, Not compliant with the ending of "You", Possessive Behavior, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Social Media Stalking, Stalker Chanyeol, Top Park Chanyeol, lots of internal monologuing, stalker behavior
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-25
Updated: 2019-05-18
Packaged: 2019-10-16 06:05:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 30,988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17544134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Writer_Markilyn/pseuds/Writer_Markilyn
Summary: Chanyeol met a wonderful, beautiful person—ran into the person, actually—and suddenly, life is so much less boring for him.  This sweet smiling angel was just too precious for this world or for any person on this godforsaken planet, Chanyeol will do anything to make sure his sweet angel is safe.  Anything.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Idea came from the Netflix series "YOU" and if any of y'all have watched it, I PROMISE it will not end the same way the series did lmao, I could never!!!! Also, if you met anyone who acted like Joe, a character from "YOU", report his ass.
> 
> I'm not too tech savvy, so much of the stalking with tech is coming out of the air and Google.

_Tap. Tap. Tap. Scroll. Scroll. Scroll.  Backspace.  Backspace.  Slow blinking of the cursor…_

Chanyeol rested his chin in the palm of his hand as he blankly stared at the monitor screen, the light of the screen cast a bright glare onto them, disguising his spacing out as intense reading of the code he was reviewing for the law firm’s server that his department was hired to assist.

He sighed heavily and leaned back, scratching at his chin before pushing a hand back through his dark, wavy hair, stifling another sigh as he dropped his hand back to his wireless mouse and actually made himself review the code.

“Everything good, Park?” a light, friendly nudge came into contact with Chanyeol, who resisted from moving away from the hand.

“Yes, JunMyeon,” Chanyeol automatically responded.

_No, JunMyeon, I’m bored and life has no meaning outside of video games, which have been ruined for me because you had me here over the weekend to run a server test and code and now all I see is code, you dick._

He thought bitterly and took a drink of his sweet tea to keep his mouth shut and to keep him from looking at JunMyeon’s overly joyous face, and Chanyeol wondered how he could be so happy at all times; it was almost eerie.  Chanyeol may have been chief of technology support, but his job was rather boring and he knew that JunMyeon’s title was over his and dealt with the more annoying tasks of having to speak with companies to negotiate contracts or call and make reports in areas that their contractors were lacking in.

Overall, Chanyeol just assumed JunMyeon was either a masochist or actually enjoyed his job.

“Well, good, because we do need this server update to be completed before the firm opens and you’re training the new paralegal there, who starts today!” JunMyeon chirped and clapped Chanyeol on the shoulder happily.  “Thank you!” he trilled before moving onto his next victim.

 _Scratch those two things, he’s just a dick._   Chanyeol grumbled softly and slid on his noise canceling headphones, extra bitter because training new employees at the law firm wasn’t his job, that was Kibum’s since he had such _great_ customer service and everyone usually harassed him for help if something went wrong on their computer, but unfortunately for Chanyeol, Kibum was on vacation for the next two-weeks.

_God, I need some coffee to make it through this._

~~~

The best part about working in a giant building that had multiple floors of offices was that there was a Starbucks on the first floor, along with a few food chains, so Chanyeol never had to go far if he forgot— _read: lazy—_ to pack lunch.

The bad part about it?  Everyone in the damn building also seemed to forget to pack lunch, so the lines were sometimes outrageous that Chanyeol didn’t think that committing murder to get a couple places further up in the line to get an overly priced drink or meal was worth it.

He absentmindedly played _Pokémon Go!_ on his phone, grumbling under his breath about how an Oddish with a CP of 35 should _not_ be that difficult to catch, but yet, here he was, on the third ball, and surprised that it hadn’t fled yet.

He _finally_ caught the damned thing and a few more different types of Pokémon and made it to the front of the line, placed his order and shuffled off the side, eyes glued back to his phone; he shouldn’t have been surprised that he nearly shoulder-head-checked someone to the floor due to his height, as the other person barely reached his shoulder.

The person gasped, _a man_ , Chanyeol figured, guessing from the way they were dressed in pressed light grey slacks, matte black Oxfords, a blazer that matched, and the shirt that he briefly saw was tucked into the waistband of the slacks was a very soft blue with little white polka dots.

Chanyeol quickly steadied the young man, large hand coming to grasp him firmly, yet carefully around his bicep, “I’m sorry for the inconvenience,” the words were just a reflex, as they were something he said when an attorney or staff member in the law firm were flustered and needed the problem fixed ASAP.

The shorter pulled back from Chanyeol’s hold, dusting off imaginary lint from his blazer, a small pout on his lips from being disturbed, he looked up at Chanyeol, eyes widening briefly, because they were standing so close and he backed up a little, “Don’t worry about it,” he murmured, edging by him, fixing his darkish blonde hair nervously out of habit.  “The Pikachu you were wanting to catch fled by the way,” he stated with a crescent eyed smile and hurried away to the elevators.

Chanyeol blinked, feeling as if he were in a daze and feeling as if he had met the Sun’s son to bless his day.

 _Just who are you, Puppy Face?_ He wondered, watching the elevator doors close, but the man with the youthful face was no longer in sight.  Chanyeol startled a bit when he heard his last name being shouted and he hastily grabbed his coffee, he glanced at the elevator again, looking above the doors to see what floor they stopped on, but the number bulbs had already gone dull.

 _Dammit_.  Chanyeol huffed and took a sip of his coffee, hissing softly as he burned his tongue and upper lip and he sulkily headed to the elevators, mood even more gray, because cute boy was gone and he wouldn’t be able to taste things for a while.

The moment Chanyeol sat down, Kyungsoo was coming up to him, Chanyeol usually didn’t have a problem with him, as the shorter usually kept to himself and only came to Chanyeol in dire emergencies, so Chanyeol’s heart was racing a little faster in fear rather than the caffeine.

“Nothing is on fire,” Kyungsoo huffed and saw Chanyeol relax in his chair.  “JunMyeon Hyung just asked me to tell you to go meet the new person personally,” he shrugged.  “JunMyeon thinks I strike the fear of God in you or some stupid shit,” he rolled his eyes.

“You’re shorter than me and filled with pure rage, anyone would be wary of you,” Chanyeol teased, this was one person that Chanyeol could joyfully banter with.  He playfully flinched away when Kyungsoo stood straighter, “Ah, don’t’ hurt me!~” he chuckled shrilly and that caused Kyungsoo’s stern face to turn his lips into a heart-shaped smile.

“I’d go for the knees, Beanpole,” Kyungsoo reminded him.  “Anyway, make sure you don’t have coffee breath before you go talk to the new guy, just email us his name and whatnot, cool?”

“Yea, got it,” Chanyeol waved him away and saw Kyungsoo happily turn away to go back to his desk that was in the furthest part of the office.  He popped in a piece of gum, gathered himself mentally and made himself brave it out to go talk to a stranger.

Chanyeol got up from his desk and waltzed over to where Kibum’s desk was and went to the short filing cabinet that Kibum stored all the training manuals for all the computer programs, Chanyeol at least knew that person was a paralegal and he whistled softly as he left the IT department that was down the hall from the law firm. 

He pushed through the frosted doors and greeted the secretary up front with a kind smile, she was middle-and very sweet, she always told Chanyeol to grab a soda, water, or coffee if he wanted something.

“Hi there!” she chirped.

“Good morning, Sun-Hee,” Chanyeol smiled to her.  “I’m here to train the new paralegal?”

“Ah, yes!” Sun-Hee said, she hurried around her desk and beckoned Chanyeol to follow her to one of the conference rooms.  “He finished up his paperwork, I was going to show him where he’ll be stationed.”

 _Yes, yes, let’s get this moving._   Chanyeol thought, he tried not to be so impatient, but having to be a software trainer was exhausting, especially when they’d just been ringing him up maybe six to eight times a week and that was something he was dreading, as now, they’d be face to face, Chanyeol would have to at least pretend that he was enjoying their company and their stale sense of humor.

Sun-Hee knocked politely before nudging the door open to Chanyeol’s favorite conference room out of the three that this law firm had, it was the center room, the outside walls were windows, allowing the people in that room to view out onto the expansive lake and the blossom trees that were across the body of water; he set up this room himself and probably lingered more than he had too, but hey, no one snitched.

The door was pushed open and Chanyeol kept his gaze cut to the side, he heard Sun-Hee saying something about situated with his paperwork, he zoned out until he felt a light pressure on his arm and that’s when he tuned back in, he was about the force the people pleasing smile and introduce himself, but the breath stayed trapped in his lungs; it was that soft, boxy smile, sleepy, puppy eyes turned into happy crescents, soft lips shaping to pronounce his own name.

“Hi there,” the smile turned a little impish at this point.  “Nice to meet you, Pokémon Trainer, I’m Byun Baekhyun, please teach me well so I’m able to overcome all my battles and become campion.”

Chanyeol could only stare in awe; he was pretty sure he found The One.


	2. Chapter 2

** Two **

_Byun Baekhyun…Byun Baekhyun, hm, also known as ‘Baekhyunee’ on your Insta that is just public for_ everyone _to see.  Oh, you love your Corgi, but he stays with your parents because your apartment won’t allow pets…now, where is this apartment?_

Chanyeol scrolled through Baekhyun’s Instagram, making sure not to scroll too far after the picture Baekhyun posted of the moving truck that his older brother was driving.  He clicked one photo that Baekhyun posted off his strawberry refresher from Starbucks and a muffin the caption saying _#Movingbreak! #Adulting:(_ and the angle was lined up with a background and Chanyeol saw a not common restaurant sign in the background, he Googled that and bit at his bottom lip in annoyance because there were still four apartment complexes that were nearby it.

 _Okay…well, you’re a fresh graduate, landed this job before the move, gotta start feeling independent, yes, I can respect that._ Chanyeol tapped at his chin thoughtfully.  He flicked through a few more photos, he saw a soccer field in the background and zoomed in the sign, he couldn’t see the name, but he saw the colors.

He looked up the colors and found out it was a middle school’s colors, he looked up the school and found out they were the River Otters and Chanyeol pitied them, they probably got so much shit during sporting events.  None of that mattered to Chanyeol, he had the information he was looking for and he viewed the outside of Baekhyun’s apartment complex, he didn’t know which one it was specifically, but it was a start.

 _Not bad, not bad._   Chanyeol nibbled on his thumbnail and he looked through the apartment’s website.  _Not gated though, ohh, Hyunnie, you’ve_ got _to be careful about that, someone like you could get snatched up._

  _Not great lighting either, I hope you don’t leave after dark, what if I couldn’t protect you, hm?_   Chanyeol frowned and went back to checking Baekhyun’s additional social media, between his dog pictures, cute selfies with some adorable filters, Baekhyun was pretty secretive about his life.

With some digging, he found some of Baekhyun’s old friends from school that have MySpace, of course, they’re all inactive now, but it was still cute seeing Baekhyun’s even more youthful face back when he was in middle school up to high school.

 _You’re open, but shy, tell me, would you snap at anyone who gets too close?_ Chanyeol saw nothing of relationships and he wondered if he should get all excited at that, but then again, Baekhyun was more private about his personal life; he only let people see what he wanted them to see.

 _My shy boy._ Chanyeol mused, smiling softly at a recent picture Baekhyun posted a few days after meeting him for the first time, he felt his heart flutter as the sunlight turned Baekhyun’s wheat blonde hair a shade brighter, his cheeks were rosy, teeth bright, Chanyeol wished he could have been the one to capture this moment, but it had been Baekbeom to do so, they both had dogs and had the occasional brother to brother hang out.

He saved that picture among many other in a locked file on his phone, it was a favorite pastime of Chanyeol’s, to lovingly trace over a pink cheek, wondering how soft his skin could be under Chanyeol’s touch; a wistful sigh left Chanyeol as he flopped onto his back on his mattress.  He wriggled under his covers when he tapped his favorite picture of Baekhyun, he had darker hair, but still was very cute in his large, floppy summer hat, a loose tank top, and cute baby blue shorts; the caption said he was suffering from the heat, but his smile was cute, eyes in crescents again, the picture was captured from Baekhyun’s mother, as it had been on her Facebook.

He checked Baekhyun’s Twitter frequently, as Baekhyun was more active on there, he mostly retweeted stuff about videogames and Chanyeol could appreciate that he was a videogame enthusiast, most of them were shooter games like PUBG and Overwatch, but he did play some RPG games as well.  Chanyeol was already imaging dates consisting of them and his Switch and Pokémon battles and planned out penalty rounds for the loser; most of them were sexual favors of course, and Chanyeol moaned lowly, already imaging what it would feel like to have Baekhyun’s velvety soft, warm lips wrapped around his dick.

 _Mm,_ _slow down, we’re barely on first name basis._ Chanyeol reminded himself with a small pout.  As it turns out, Baekhyun was extremely tech-savvy and immediately had a swing of how to maneuver through the billing programs for when he had to bill his time for the tasks he completed, he was also going to be a half assistant, so he had to understand how to edit prebills and submit an attorney’s time and how to do their expense reports.

Baekhyun was pretty fucking intelligent and had almost figured out how to run through the programs before Chanyeol had finished going through the whole packet, he was indeed, an IT representative’s wet dream, well, specifically Chanyeol’s wet dream; smart, witty, an actual good sense of humor, they hadn’t gotten to talk about hobbies, but that would change soon, Chanyeol would squeeze into Baekhyun’s timeslot so they could talk.

But first thing, first, Chanyeol had to learn Baekhyun’s daily life pattern, like afterwork activities, his favorite restaurant to pick up dinner if he didn’t feel like cooking, weekend niches, how often he visited his parents, where he walked his dog, gamertags, and his closest friends.

Unfortunately, Chanyeol would need Baekhyun’s phone in order to gain at least half of those things and his laptop, during breaks, Chanyeol would pass through the hall and find Baekhyun sitting on a cushioned bench that was outside Baekhyun’s office and see him either talking on his phone or scrolling through it.  Without a doubt, he used a calendar and used note reminders on his phone, as Chanyeol saw his phone light up a couple times, a peek at the screen flashing about some calendar reminder, so he had to get a hold of those saved plans.

He had a couple days until Monday, it was just now Saturday morning and he could tell that this was going to be a start of weekend ritual of looking through Baekhyun’s social media, jerking off to some fantasies, wondering if Baekhyun had an oral fixation due to some photos he posted that he had something in his mouth, jerking off _again_ to that thought, before showering, and spending the rest of the day playing videogames until he felt sick with hunger and then would cook for himself.

But it was _so_ boring, Chanyeol was now lying across his couch, not really paying attention to what movie he had selected; he assumed it was a horror movie as when he did blink and pay attention, he’d see someone being chased.  He lied back and sighed, staring up at the ceiling.  _Would Baekhyun like scary movies?  He looks too sweet to enjoy something so gory_.  His eyes went back to the TV screen and saw a man getting gutted and he wrinkled his nose; it was such a _mess._

~~~

Cooking was not on Chanyeol’s to-do list, so he took a shower and got ready, merely pulling on a well-worn grey hoodie, light blue jeans with rips in the knees, and beat-up chucks.  He didn’t feel like putting his contacts in and slid his glasses on, grabbed his keys, wallet, and phone, after that, he locked up and head down the hallway, stuffing his hands into his hoodie pocket and rounded the stair balcony and headed down the stairs.

He nodded to a tenant on the first floor who he occasionally gamed with, Jae-suk, was his name, he was a year younger than Chanyeol, he worked at the grocery shop that Chanyeol went to every couple of weeks.

“Got some free time tonight, Yeol?” Jae-suk asked when Chanyeol greeted him.

“Of course, what’s up?” Chanyeol questioned him.  “I’m just going to grab dinner and then be on my way back.”

“Sweet, Kun-woo is having a raid put together, he wants us to join,” Jae-suk replied. 

“Cool, I’ll be there, see you then,” Chanyeol concluded their conversation and headed outside, he knew there was a ramen shop just a little down the block and he was craving that and some steamed dumplings, hell, he might as well pick up a bottle of soju while he was out.

 After putting in his order, Chanyeol crossed the street to the liquor store and bought two bottles, he paid and then went back to the ramen shop, and his name was called minutes later; he thanked them before hustling away, eager to get back to his apartment, he could eat first and go through Baekhyun’s social media again before joining a clan raid and then go to bed and watch those early videos of Baekhyun that his friends had posted of him singing; he would have been a beautiful idol, had he gone through with it, but Chanyeol was pretty happy that Baekhyun didn’t, or else he would be unreachable and Chanyeol could only yearn for him from the crowd and from behind a screen.

He parted his chopsticks and dug into his food, pretending that he could share this moment with the boy with a boxy smile.


	3. Chapter 3

_Mondays._ Chanyeol groaned and rolled over and swiped his alarm off on his phone, he rubbed tiredly at his eyes and unlocked his phone; he had at least fifteen minutes before he had to get into the shower and get ready for work.  He opened his saved pictures file and smiled tiredly, squinting at the brightness, “But Mondays are fine as long as I get to see you.”

He got up and got ready with enough time to make a quick breakfast and didn’t bother on packing, he pulled on a jacket, put on his crossbody backpack, locked up his place, made his way downstairs, and stepped out onto the street; the sun was just starting to creep between the tall buildings, and he slid his sunglasses on and headed towards the underground subway.

Chanyeol swiped his card, slid in his headphones and pulled out his phone to play some mobile games to pass the time, flicking through Baekhyun’s stuff the closer he got to work to see if there was anything he missed over the weekend.

 _25, same as me, interesting, Taurus, born in May, dog lover, enjoys ramen, sugar addict, gamer, guilty k-drama enthusiast, loves taking walks in the park and plaza shops…careful, Hyunnie, it sounds like you’re trying to speed date._   Chanyeol reviewed and clicked back to Baekhyun’s pictures, re-reading each caption carefully, a fond smile coming to his face, _I want to be part of your happiness, I want to give you more happiness._

He got off the subway when his stop announced itself and he jogged up the stairs and put his sunglasses back on when the sun was reflecting off the glass windows of tall buildings and he waited to cross the street, he froze when he heard a familiar laugh and he glanced to the left of him and his heart fluttered when he saw that breath taking smile, a delicate hand brought up to cover that smile to help muffle his laughter.

 _Why are you hiding that beautiful smile?_ Chanyeol wanted to call to him, but realized that would be too creepy, as they had only just met, he wondered who was on the other end of the phone call.

He definitely was not jealous at that.

Chanyeol moved with the crowd, his eyes glued to Baekhyun, watching him readjust his shoulder bag and continue to chat happily with the person he was talking to on the phone, he cut through the crowd to get close to hear what was being said, but it was a little difficult to hear over other people and traffic.

“Yea, it’s fine, Dae, geez, you act like I wouldn’t have survived my first week!” Baekhyun sighed in playful exasperation before laughing at what his friend said.  “Sure, sure, whatever, go rescue a sick kitten, or something, I gotta go!  I stayed up too late and had to miss out on making breakfast and I’m gonna grab something to eat, I’ll call you later, Dae, bye!”

Chanyeol’s eyebrows furrowed, he didn’t see anyone named _Dae_ on Baekhyun’s media accounts, it had to be a nickname and Chanyeol frowned at that.  He followed Baekhyun inside and stood in the coffee line with him, just observing as Baekhyun played a tile game on his phone to pass the time; he saw that Baekhyun was struggling a bit as he was on an outrageously high level.  He cleared his throat lightly and stepped close, “Move that here,” Chanyeol suggested, proud that his voice didn’t tremble as much as his hands were.

Baekhyun gasped when someone was leaning so close to him that he nearly dropped his phone, he looked up and relaxed a little, “Geez!” he huffed, “You IT guys really know how to be sneaky!  I figured you guys would be less graceful since you’re sat at a desk all day, like me.”

“Not all of us are those stereotypical chubby guys with an acne problem,” Chanyeol teased and mentally high-fived himself when he saw Baekhyun’s lips curl into an amused smile. 

“No, you’re right, I shouldn’t categorize,” Baekhyun hummed apologetically, eyes doing a once over; he liked what he saw from the moment he landed eyes on this very tall, very handsome man, even if he nearly did get shoulder-checked to the ground.

“All is forgiven, you’re new and so far, the favorite person in my office,” Chanyeol informed him.  “You haven’t made a peep to us,” he mused and quickly backtracked, “n-not that would be an issue of course!”

“Relax, I’m not going to throw you under the bus…unless I haven’t had my morning coffee,” Baekhyun winked and saw a light flush come to Chanyeol’s cheeks.  He giggled at Chanyeol’s baffled expression, “Oh, you must not get out much, no?”

“No…not really,” Chanyeol confessed.  “I, uh, won’t keep you,” he nodded to Baekhyun when the next person moved so that Baekhyun could place his order, he neatly cut in when Baekhyun was reaching for his satchel to his wallet.  “I got it,” he said and heard Baekhyun protesting.  “Hey, you’re the new guy, I want to at least to try to make you happy before you’re absorbed into paperwork.”

Baekhyun thanked him and moved to the side so Chanyeol could place his order too and then they both walked to the end of the counter where their drinks would be placed.  He looked up to him, “Are you this nice to everyone?” Baekhyun poked at him.

 _Only to puppy eyed people with a cute smile and look the way you do._ Chanyeol laughed and shook his head, “No, not really, I just want to make up for when I nearly tackled you.”

“You did not nearly tackle me,” Baekhyun huffed, puffing up, but it made no difference, Chanyeol still towered over him.  He deflated, “Okay…so I’m just a teeny bit shorter than you and you can’t even see under your nose, so I guess it is only fair for tackling a man’s confidence and buy him coffee as an apology, which, apology accepted.”

Chanyeol chuckled at Baekhyun’s pout, “Sure, short stuff,” he teased.  _I like that you’re pocket sized…it’ll be easier to carry you to bed or lift you up on my kitchen counters to kiss you._

“Hey!” Baekhyun grumbled and sulked, even when he got his overly sweet caramel Frappuccino.  He smiled despite trying to keep the petty attitude up, but it was sweet that Chanyeol let him onto the elevator first.  He watched Chanyeol hit the floor four button with his knuckle, “Not fond of germs?”

“Not when I’ll have it all over my keyboard and it’s spring, people seem to get sicker now rather than the winter,” Chanyeol said with a disgusted shiver and heard Baekhyun laugh.  He gestured for Baekhyun to go first, he couldn’t help himself to look over the shorter man’s backside, eyes roaming over completely before going back to rest on Baekhyun’s nicely shaped bottom; Chanyeol really appreciated those slacks and how they accented Baekhyun’s thighs too and his fingers twitched, wanting to touch.

“You coming?” Baekhyun looked back at Chanyeol and saw the taller lurch at his voice before stepping forward before the elevator doors shut on him.  He raised an eyebrow, “Are _you_ getting sick?” he questioned, seeing the light pink on Chanyeol’s cheeks.

“No, no, I just…got really warm all of a sudden,” Chanyeol shrugged and he heard Baekhyun laugh softly at his flustered response.

“Uh- _huh_ ,” Baekhyun mused.  He took another sip of his drink, “See you later, Chanyeol,” he winked and sauntered into his office.

 _Flirty, I hope you aren’t like that with everyone._   Chanyeol watched him go and then walked down the hall to go to his office.  He swiped his ID card and went through the door and walked through the front office that was potentially a breakroom as well before going through another door and nodded to Min-ki and walked back to where his desk was.

“Morning, Yeol,” the words slightly echoed in the mug that Kyungsoo held close to his lips, his eyes were barely open behind his glasses.

“Long night, Soo?” Chanyeol asked, draping his jacket over the back of his chair before putting his backpack on top of that.  He dropped into his swivel chair with a tired huff and picked up his cup that he sat onto his desk and looked up at Kyungsoo.

“Just busy that’s all, I moved to my new place over the weekend,” Kyungsoo shrugged.  “I should have just stayed home today.  You?”

 _Learning everything about the new, cute paralegal._   Chanyeol shrugged, “Ramen, soju, and videogames; the norm.”

“I can’t believe _I’m_ saying this, but you need to get out every once in a while, dude,” Kyungsoo slapped Chanyeol’s shoulder.   “I’ll see you later, Yeol, don’t melt your brain.”

“Yea, yea,” Chanyeol spun in his chair and rebooted his computer and glanced around himself to make sure that he was in the clear before pulling out his phone; he saw Baekhyun had tweeted a new picture of the coffee Chanyeol’s bought him, Chanyeol smiled at the little caption.

‘ _Starting Monday off sweet ;)’_

Chanyeol thought his Monday was starting off pretty sweet too.

~~~

The sweetness faded exactly at lunch, just as Chanyeol had braved up the courage to go ask Baekhyun in person if he wanted to get lunch, he saw the paralegal shove through the frost-glass doors, an enraged expression on his otherwise soft face and his cellphone up to his ear.

Chanyeol was watching him walk down the hall and take the stairs down and Chanyeol quickly, yet quietly followed; he caught the door before it slammed shut and had to wait just at the top of the first-floor stairs before hurrying down to catch the ground door and saw Baekhyun heading towards the exit door.

He was heading towards the area where some people took their breaks, it had greenery, benches that overlooked the lake and the pretty blossom trees on the other side, and Chanyeol was pleased to see that it was mostly barren.  He saw Baekhyun stop abruptly and Chanyeol froze, thinking that he had been caught, but Baekhyun had started to angrily talk back to the person he was fighting with.

“Enough, Hyuk-woo!” Baekhyun shouted, body trembling in anger.  He started to pace, not noticing that Chanyeol was lurking just behind a rather tall bush, listening in on his conversation.  “I told you that we’re done, you’ve been nothing but a menace!  Yes, _yes_ , you have!  For one, among many other shitty things, you stole my mother’s prescription!  Yes, I fucking saw it, because you left your backpack at my apartment _again_!  My dad had called me, telling me that he was taking Umma to hospital because she was in large amounts of pain and her medication had gone missing!  I was going to drop off your bag to you because I wouldn’t have been home for the rest of the day, it wasn’t zipped and everything spilled out in the car and that’s when I saw her prescription, you asshole!”

Chanyeol winced at the sheer anger in Baekhyun’s tone and he hated to hear Baekhyun so upset.  _Give me a name, Baekhyun, a full one and I promise he’ll never steal from your family_ ever _again._

Baekhyun let out a sharp, condescending laugh, “ _Really_?  You think my brother fucking framed you?  Go to Hell, Kwon.”  With that, Baekhyun hung up and stood stiff, breathing sharply; his shoulders started to hurt from being so tense.  He rubbed at his eyes that were starting to water and he let out a hiccupping sound before clearing his throat and sat down on the bench, “Asshole,” he muttered.

Chanyeol almost exposed himself when he heard Baekhyun sniffling softly, but he didn’t want to make it obvious that he followed Baekhyun out here.  He waited a few minutes before quietly stepping onto the sidewalk and pulled out his phone, starting up Pokémon Go as a decoy and walked slowly until he rounded the shrubbery that had just previously been hiding behind.  He turned his head slightly, as if he was just checking his surroundings before pulling on a surprised face, “Hey, Baekhyun!  Out here for lunch?”

Baekhyun blinked a few times to make it seem like he hadn’t just been crying, “Uh…yea, kinda,” he murmured.  He saw Chanyeol tilt his head curiously and saw the concerned frown, “It’s nothing, just a stupid ex who won’t get the memo that we’re done.”

“Oh, stalker ex-girlfriends?” Chanyeol asked, moving to sit on the bench too, but kept a respectful distance, as he didn’t want to crowd the shorter.

“No, ex-boyfriend,” Baekhyun seemed a little hesitant to correct him and he saw Chanyeol nod and merely hummed sympathetically at that.

“Some dudes are just total dicks,” Chanyeol said and he heard Baekhyun’s watery laughter and his gut clenched unhappily at that sound.

Baekhyun wiped at his eyes again quickly, “Sorry, I shouldn’t burden you with my issues, but thanks for not…being a complete jerk about me being into guys.”

“It’s 2018, or as the youths say it, 20- _gayteen_ ,” Chanyeol chuckled and heard Baekhyun let out a much lighter laugh.  “I’m not one to judge, anyway, I like anyone, I’m not too picky, as long as you’re a decent human being, because for some reason, those are hard to come by nowadays,” his tone turned bitter towards the end and his eyes narrowed slightly.

“Sound like you got your own dirt to shoulder,” Baekhyun replied and watched Chanyeol nod absentmindedly at that.  “Sorry for bringing the mood down for lunch.”

“No worries,” Chanyeol shrugged.  He pocketed his phone that had shut off from being idle for more than a few minutes, “Wanna grab a sandwich?” Chanyeol asked him, standing up and offered a hand to pull Baekhyun up.

The smile Baekhyun gave Chanyeol could have given him the energy to run for the rest of the day, but there was still a niggling part in the back of his brain, it still remained even after they had finished their lunch, had a playful— _Chanyeol learned_ real _quick that Baekhyun was competitive as fuck_ —Pokémon battle on their phones, before walking with Baekhyun back up to their floor.

“Should have taken the elevator,” Baekhyun was a little winded when they reached their floor.

Chanyeol grinned, “I have a couple friends I play basketball with when I’m not being lazy for once, so I have a bit of exercise under my belt.”

“Lucky you, I just practice dance every weekend or so,” Baekhyun said, catching his breath.

Chanyeol stored that away for personal time later and he made himself relax, “For fun or is this a professional thing?”

“Mostly for fun, I just help a friend out, he teaches at a studio and sometimes needs the extra help,” Baekhyun said, slowing to a stop as they reached his office’s doors.  “Before you go, I just wanted to thank you,” he looked and sounded a little nervous and he mentally berated himself for it.

“No problem, it’s what I’m here for,” Chanyeol responded.  “To fix computer problems and to help with…friends.”

Baekhyun perked up at that, “I know I’ve only just met you, but it would be good to have more people like you in my life.”

“You say that now, but there’s no takebacks at this point,” Chanyeol grinned, feeling as if he would burst from that praise.

Baekhyun laughed fondly, a gentle look to his eyes, “I think I handle that.”

Chanyeol thought his heart was going to turn to mush, “I’ll see you late…Baek,” he said softly before waving goodbye and headed to his office.  He saw that all of his officemates were gone, except for Min-ki, as he usually just stayed at his desk for everything.

Once he was sat at his own desk, Chanyeol logged back into his computer, a determined glare in his eyes.

_Now, who the fuck is Kwon Hyuk-woo?_


	4. Chapter 4

_28, hip-hop junkie, you freestyle rap as a career.  Baekhyun, what the fuck?  Why would you ever choose_ this _man as a potential partner?_   _Goes by Loco…that rings a bell, he would leave some crude comments on your beautiful pictures and how much he wanted to defile you over every surface, ugh._

He learned that Baekhyun must met him in Bucheon, which was where Baekhyun lived with his family and had gone to college there as well, Hyuk-woo  lived in Seoul his whole life, but apparently the hour commute was worth it, because he was comparing sappy Tweets made by Kwon and comparisons in Baekhyun’s posts and pictures, they had been in a relationship for a little over a year, Hyuk-woo had gone to Bucheon for something or maybe just touring and somehow met Baekhyun, which he couldn’t figure out an exact date as there hadn’t been any locations or pictures of them posted.

Chanyeol exhaled heavily and rubbed at the bridge of his nose, he was glad he wasn’t wearing his glasses or they would have been knocked off a fair amount of times.  He went back to this guy’s Twitter and became more annoyed with every little thing this man posted. 

Most of it was redundant posts, such as him posting dates and times when he was going to have a showdown with another rapper, retweets of fans who talked about wanting to do sexual things with him and that caused Chanyeol to grit his teeth in anger; Hyuk-woo was unfaithful.

It was sprinkled throughout his whole Twitter account and his Instagram, it made Chanyeol angry that Baekhyun had let this man waste his time like that!  Chanyeol rolled his eyes and scoffed when he saw a few pictures posted. _Classy and who do you mean when you say ‘all for you’, hmm?_

Chanyeol begrudgingly refreshed the Twitter account and saw that there had been a post almost a minute ago, a location, date, and time of another showdown and a comment Hyuk-woo added:

_Just gotta grab my Golden Rod ;) and I’ll show this guy to never compare sizes with me!_

Chanyeol rolled his eyes so hard that it stung, but he was curious what Hyuk-woo meant, despite the awful sexual play of words.  He glanced at the account picture and saw a hand in a mic-drop pose, holding a golden microphone.

 _Bingo._   _Now, where is this microphone?_ Chanyeol looked to see if he mentioned any repairs needed to it, he went through all the photos he could find and he noticed a similar pattern in each picture; a backpack and the microphone. 

Who had Kwon’s backpack?

 _Baekhyun!_ Chanyeol’s panicky mind supplied.  He looked around himself and saw that everyone else was busy with something, Chanyeol literally only had work to do if someone called and he was surprised that he hadn’t received a single email or a phone call from a staff member or an attorney having a crisis.

Hacking into the employment database by any means was a giant _no-no_ , like losing his job and being arrested for invasion of strict confidential information, really, the only one to have access to this was the office manager, but she was out of town for the next week and Chanyeol only needed 10 minutes, if that.

He pulled up the files and went to the file containing all the staff’s information, he found the file that had his city’s name and clicked that and he only had to scroll maybe fourth of a page before he found Baekhyun’s file; the back of his neck started to feel a little clammy.

 _But it’s for his protection, if I know where he lives then I can prevent any casualties with his stupid ex._   Chanyeol reminded himself and quickly opened Baekhyun’s employment information that had his phone number, address, and emergency contacts— _Better to have his parent’s contact info too._

He took a quick picture of Baekhyun’s employee sheet before closing it and backing out the confidential folder completely and erased all of his most recent history in his window’s explorer program.  Chanyeol quickly saved the two pictures in his private Baekhyun’s folder in his phone and shakily exhaled; feeling giddy, yet a little bad at invading Baekhyun’s private information like that, but Chanyeol _needed_ to do that.

Chanyeol considered to calendar the future date of Hyuk-woo’s tournament that he was going to be in, the event was the upcoming weekend, Chanyeol wouldn’t act on anything if Hyuk-woo left Baekhyun the fuck alone.  His pulse settled a little and he felt himself relax fully when he got an email, asking him to help one of the staff members figure out how to run a program on a disc that contained surveillance videos.

He could handle that with no issue, after all, he was a tech genius.

~~~

On Thursday, Chanyeol was surprised to see Baekhyun’s name pull up on the caller ID on his work phone.  He lifted he the phone out of its cradle, “Hey, Baek,” Chanyeol greeted him.

“Hi…sorry to bother you for a not work-related issue, but the work cellphone I have, I need to use it as a personal cellphone for the day, I sort of…broke mine, but it’s under the law firm’s server and needs administration permission to download the app,” Baekhyun’s sheepish voice was still lovely to hear.

“Of course!  I’ll pop on by, just give me five minutes, okay?” Chanyeol said as he was pulling out his work cell that he was also given, but never used, he usually left it at work, as JunMyeon normally contacted him directly to his personal cellphone.

Baekhyun thanked him profoundly before hanging up.

Chanyeol saw that his phone was ready too, he slid it into his pocket, he was just going to have to get Baekhyun to sign in on his phone first, but he was a little puzzled on how.  He grumbled under his breath, but quickly headed over to Baekhyun’s office and headed on in and greeted Sun-Hee again and saw her face light up; she doted a bit too much, treating him like he was her grandchild.

“Another in-office problem?” Sun-Hee asked him, a sympathetic look on her face.

“Ah, not really, I just got to set up Baekhyun’s work phone, I forgot that it’s got administrative block on it until it’s properly set up,” Chanyeol explained to her.

“Oh!  I can call him up if you—”

“No, no, it’s fine, I remember where his office is, thank you,” Chanyeol bowed his politely to her and said that he’d speak to her later.  He went down the long hall, eyes straight ahead, he had the attorney offices on his right and passed two sections of cubicles.

Most of the attorney’s secretaries were middle aged women with children, a few were around Chanyeol’s age, along with the couple of law clerks in that office, the rest were men, but regardless, Chanyeol knew he turned heads, he didn’t want to think too highly of himself and he knew to be cautious of those people, as they usually only went for looks and not for the personality too.

He had learned the hard way, unfortunately.

Chanyeol didn’t have to look at the nametag on the wall, he knocked on the doorframe and saw Baekhyun startle from behind his monitors, lifting up his head to look over them; the smile he gave Chanyeol was breathtaking.

“Hi, sorry, you didn’t have to rush over!” Baekhyun fretted at him.  He saw Chanyeol waving him off, but he still felt guilty for having Chanyeol come over to set up his phone.  He handed his phone over to Chanyeol and watched him deactivate the admin lock on it and set up the Cloud app, just as Baekhyun typed in his information and logged in and handed it back to Chanyeol, his doorframe being knocked on and he saw it was the attorney he was currently helping with an organization project.

Chanyeol almost held back, afraid of being caught, but the two weren’t paying any mind to him, he was pretty glad it was the more aggressive attorney who was rude in the way of not caring that his staff had something else going.  He managed to hide Baekhyun’s phone into his pocket and had his phone already pulled up on the log in information and had his phone in his hand.

“I need to borrow him for a moment,” the attorney said.

Chanyeol nodded understandingly, “I just need him to try to relog in, sorry.”

Baekhyun frowned, “Must have typed too fast,” he said and took the phone that Chanyeol was offering him and logged in again, watching it say that it was syncing up his contacts.  He gave Chanyeol a sheepish expression, “I’ll be right back!”

“No rush, it has to update anyway,” Chanyeol shrugged nonchalantly, but inside, he was panicking, because how the _fuck_ did he manage to get away with that?!  His phone was syncing up and he pulled out Baekhyun’s phone from his pocket and saw that it was mostly done uploading all the contacts to his phone and Chanyeol sat it down on the desk and hid his away.

Baekhyun returned moments later, carrying a couple case files and sat them on his desk, huffing softly, “Sorry about that,” he apologized meekly.

“Don’t worry about it, I’ve dealt with him before, I _know_ how he can be,” Chanyeol said.  _Don’t think for second that I wouldn’t ruin his life he ever raised his voice at you._   He knew the attorney was bossy, could get rather rude, but Chanyeol was rather immune to it; he didn’t have a problem with the rest of the attorneys in the office, they were all pretty cool and treated Chanyeol like an actual human being.

He offered Baekhyun the phone and saw that his contacts were updated and Baekhyun sighed in relief, “I was worried that this wasn’t going to work.”

“Well, your work cellphone wasn’t set up with a number yet, so it’ll use your phone number instead and when you get a new phone, we can just wipe this one and I can set up a new number with a direct dial,” Chanyeol explained, which was why Chanyeol didn’t have his work cellphone set up either, incase of something like this, but now he had a perfect opportunity to protect Baekhyun.

“You’re literally a life savior, Chanyeol, thank you so much!” Baekhyun bowed at him and he heard Chanyeol spluttering for him to stop and he curiously looked up and saw that Chanyeol’s face was red.  “What is it?”

“You don’t have to do that…you’re my friend,” Chanyeol murmured, averting his gaze, but he still caught Baekhyun’s warm smile in his peripheral. 

“Okay, well, I’ll just have to treat to you to lunch, sound good?” Baekhyun asked him, smiling brightly.  “Pass me your phone, I’ll give you my number and you can text me when you want lunch!”

Chanyeol thought he was going to swoon from the power of that smile and he could only nod, voice lost as he passed Baekhyun his phone, proud of himself that his hands weren’t shaking.  He cleared his throat softly, “Yea yes…um, so I’ll catch you later on that offer.”

Baekhyun nodded happily, handing back Chanyeol his phone, digits saved with his name, “Sure thing, thanks again, Chanyeol.”

With a final goodbye, Chanyeol left the office, still shaky and heart pounding in his chest; he had _never_ been that nervous before in his life and he had some experiences in his life that had shook him up, like his final test scores to see where he could apply to college, getting through college, and being an adult in general, but with Baekhyun, Chanyeol was too nervous to fuck up, too afraid of chasing away this bright person.

He’d do _anything_ to keep Baekhyun with him.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...I really want to make an Umbrella Academy AU, like so, so, SO bad :(

As it turns out, Baekhyun was _very_ popular.

Chanyeol had to end up putting the spare cellphone on silent, but periodically checking the messages and looking up these people were damn near impossible, as Baekhyun had nicknames for all of people in his contacts lists, other than his parents were saved as _Umma and Appa_ , and his brother was just called _Hyung._

So far, there was, _Minnie_ , who seemed to only ask Baekhyun is he was available to come play soccer with him and couple others, but Baekhyun always politely declined, as he “wasn’t physically active” and that “he’d cause his team to lose.”

Which, Chanyeol frowned at that, he doubted that Baekhyun could make his whole team lose and Chanyeol would gladly take time to teach Baekhyun how to properly play if he was that embarrassed to play.

Another was _Yixy_ , these were more expansive texts, between asking Baekhyun if he could help him teach a new dance lesson to his students, Yixy and Baekhyun also went out to movies and lunches together—a twinge of jealously came over Chanyeol—Yixy also sent dance practice videos and Chanyeol watched those, he frowned because the dancer was pretty attractive, a cute dimpled smile, soft eyes that filled with passion as he was dancing; Chanyeol wondered if there was anything going on between them, but as he went far back into the texts, all of them were platonic, so that cancelled out some stress.

The name _Sehunnie_ was just under Yixy’s contact name, this guy was younger than Baekhyun as he would send texts to Baekhyun with pictures of his dog named Vivi, with texts under it ‘ _Hyung, isn’t Vivi extra handsome today?~  He got groomed!’_ was the most recent and that had been the other day.  Their conversations were mostly about doggie dates and enjoying outside cafés together with their fur-children.

The name _Dae_ was very familiar, as it had been the person Baekhyun spoke to earlier that morning, Chanyeol scrolled through his texts and this man was obviously the closer friend, he consistently offered to pick Baekhyun up some groceries while he was out, asking him if work was treating him well, having dinner at each other’s places, and meetups to go to bars with some of their friends.

Chanyeol saw that Dae has just text Baekhyun and Chanyeol frowned.                   

‘ _Hey, Baekkie, just wondering if you’re okay…saw that Kwon is doing a stupid show.  I know you said that you had his bag, he might try to come over and get it, do you want me there?’_

Chanyeol only had to wait barely a minute before Baekhyun replied.

‘ _I’ll be fine, I’ll just leave it outside on the doorstep.’_

_‘You’ve been…sort of quiet about this whole breaking it off thing.  Did he do something bad?’_

‘ _He’s a lying piece of shit, I would have preferred that he cheated on me, but_ _a week ago, I found out he stole my mom’s meds and he’s been trying to win me back over.’_

‘ _Holy shit!! Wtf, and he’s trying to get back with you?  How stupid is he???’_

_‘Very.  Sorry, Dae, I’m still trying to finish up a few things at the office, I’ll be home in an hour or so, I’ll talk to you then, okay?’_

_‘Sure!  Sorry and good luck! Fighting! :D’_

Chanyeol glanced at the time and saw that it was nearly six in the evening and Baekhyun still wasn’t home.  He had typed Baekhyun’s address into Google Maps and saw that he had only lived about 20 minutes from Chanyeol; he got up and got up and quickly packed a small bag just filled with water bottles and some snacks before heading downstairs.

“Hey, Chanyeol!”

Chanyeol glanced up from his phone and saw Jae-suk standing by the mailboxes, “Hey,” he greeted him

“You free tonight?” Jae-suk asked him.

“No, sorry, dude, I’ve actually gotta run across town, might be back late,” Chanyeol apologized and saw Jae-suk frowned.

“You’ve got a real social life?” Jae-suk teased and laughed when Chanyeol huffed at him.

Chanyeol shook his head, “Not really, I just have some errands to run, nothing too big.”

“Oh, okay, well, good luck and see you later, man,” Jae-suk didn’t need much prompting to leave after that, heading back inside his apartment where the TV was loud briefly before the door muffled it once more.

Chanyeol left quickly and walked down to the underground garage to where his car was parked; he rarely drove, unless he wanted to drive out of the city for a while.  He put his bag in the passenger seat and loaded up the directions on his Google maps and then carefully pulled out onto the street.

The drive wasn’t too long, but it dragged just a little bit as Chanyeol was observing the area, seeing how the surrounding areas looked, and the areas were neatly groomed and so far, nothing looked shady and Chanyeol relaxed about that.

There was parking on the outside of Baekhyun’s apartment complex and Chanyeol pulled into an open spot on the side of the road, there wasn’t much activity when he had pulled into it and he was grateful for that, as he didn’t want a lingering person to get curious as to why he hadn’t gotten out of his vehicle.

His windows were practically blacked out and he knew that no one would be able to see him on the inside, so Chanyeol could get his camera ready that he kept in its case behind the passenger seat.

As he was getting it focused, Chanyeol heard a city bus pulling to a stop and he looked up and saw a lone figure lumbering off, wearing a dark hoodie with the hood pulled up, hands shoved into his pockets of his baggy sweat pants, the symbol of the golden microphone alone on the back of the hoodie was a dead giveaway of who it was and Chanyeol gritted his teeth; it was Loco.

Chanyeol watched him saunter his way over to where Baekhyun’s apartment was, Chanyeol had reviewed the layout, Baekhyun lived on the second floor right by the stairs; he was anxious because he didn’t know if Hyuk-woo had a spare key or not and Chanyeol almost didn’t want to wait around and find out, as Chanyeol hadn’t been able to bug Baekhyun’s apartment to make sure that he was safe.

So, Chanyeol called the non-emergency number for the patrol officer on site and glared out the window until the line was picked up.

“Yes, hello, I wanted to report a suspicious figure at this address,” Chanyeol informed the patrol officer.  “Yes, he’s been lurking outside a resident’s apartment, I saw him and the resident a few weeks ago arguing outside, I believe they were a couple and now have broken up, but he keeps coming back.  No, I don’t know if the resident is home right now and I don’t have their number.”

Chanyeol absentmindedly nodded and gestured his hand for the conversation to hurry up; Baekhyun would be here soon and he wanted Kwon out of his sight.  He thanked the patrol officer and hung up, drumming his fingers impatiently on the steering wheel.

It was another twenty minutes before a lone car pulled up near the sidewalk and Chanyeol saw Baekhyun climb out of the back, leaning in briefly to talk to the driver before quickly shutting the door, a scowl on his face as he held the phone up to his ear, without a doubt, the patrol officer or the leasing agent was on the phone with Baekhyun.

Chanyeol frowned as he watched the Uber pull away, didn’t Baekhyun know that taking a driving service was probably far more dangerous than taking public transportation?  He’d fret about that later, because he saw the patrol officer step out of the apartment complex where Baekhyun’s was, with Hyuk-woo following behind, looking pissed and Chanyeol chuckled to himself.

He couldn’t hear what was being said, but he could see Baekhyun’s tense figure, he zoomed in with his camera and saw the angry flush on his cheeks, one hand clenched into a fist by his side, as the other dug his nails into the strap of his shoulder bag.

The patrol officer was gesturing gently with his hands at Baekhyun before looking at Hyuk-woo with a stern expression on his face, he was shaking his head at him, talking more before looking over to Baekhyun, who nodded, hurried inside and returned moments later, angrily thrusting the backpack into the rapper’s hands.

After that, Chanyeol watched Hyuk-woo be escorted off the premises and get onto another bus, Chanyeol also waited until Baekhyun was safely back inside before pulling away from the curb and started to head back home.

It wasn’t until he was out of his car that he felt the utter fatigue that came crashing over him, Chanyeol figured it was adrenaline rush that he got for Baekhyun in fear for him and Chanyeol sleepily walked towards the stairs, too impatient for the elevator, and dragged himself up them all the way to his apartment and fumbled with the lock to his door.

He locked up again and avoided making dinner, not thinking that he could even stay up for instant ramen, Chanyeol tiredly brushed his teeth and got undressed to his boxers and T-shirt before flopping onto his bed, he was even too tired to come up with a scenario with Baekhyun, which he was grumbly about that, but not tired enough to flip through his private folder and scroll through his favorite pictures that were basically all of Baekhyun’s photos and fell asleep to a sweet smile.

~~~

Baekhyun’s apartment was off limits for at least a couple weeks, Chanyeol figured, without a doubt, the patrol officer was going to make extra rounds where Baekhyun lived, which made Chanyeol happy that they were doing a proper job, but also annoyed because it meant that he couldn’t sneak over there and set up his equipment.

During that following week, Baekhyun “misplaced” his keys and Chanyeol made a copy of the apartment key and Chanyeol had deposited the original key and cute keyring back at Baekhyun’s desk and no one even batted and eye, he had received a text from Baekhyun later saying that he must have put them in his penholder absentmindedly because that’s where they were.

Chanyeol had just texted back, saying that he was silly and working himself too hard, next he was going to leave his phone in the fridge!

Currently, it was Friday, Chanyeol was checking his spare phone ever so often, as Yixy, who Chanyeol figured out was Yixing, was texting Baekhyun to come over this weekend for a movie night with him, Jongdae, Minseok, and Sehun and Chanyeol was grateful that Yixing didn’t use nicknames as freely as Baekhyun did, because it was easier to search those names in the social media accounts, even if their usernames weren’t their actual names, their name was occasionally tagged in something that one of their friends wanted them to see.

“You look happy,” JunMyeon smiled when he saw Chanyeol’s pleased expression; he hadn’t seen Chanyeol so chipper in a long time.

“Yea…my friend who lives by me is coming over tonight, we’re going to have a movie marathon,” Chanyeol quickly made something up and saw JunMyeon nod approvingly; his supervision was always encouraging friendships and whatnot, as he said it promoted a happy lifestyle and a great work atmosphere.

“Well, I hope you two have fun this weekend!” JunMyeon smiled and clapped Chanyeol on the shoulder before shimming away to probably berate Kyungsoo to go do the same or some other lone wolf in their department.

Chanyeol glanced down when he saw the phone light up briefly and saw that Baekhyun had text back Yixing to confirm and Chanyeol’s heart froze in his chest when he saw the next text Baekhyun sent to Yixing.

‘ _Do you mind if I bring another friend?  None of you know him, he works for the IT department for my law firm.’_

‘ _Oooh, the same IT guy you were talking about during our coffee?  Jongdae totally owes me a pork belly bowl now!’_

‘ _Shut up!!! T~T he’s a very sweet giant!! Anyone would be mean to not talk about how nice he is…besides, I want him to meet you all and I want you ALL to be on your best behavior!  He is very tender hearted and the last thing I need is to snap at you guys for teasing too much!’_

‘ _Aw, you’re such a gooey mess for him, kissy, kissy!  Lol, I promise to be nice, I’m sure you won’t have to worry about Jongdae or Minseok either, Sehunnie is the vicious little demon._

_‘Thanks…I know, I’ll have to bribe him to behave…I just don’t know how to ask him…but I’ll figure it out.  See you Saturday, Yixing!’_

Chanyeol put the phone up, mind running a mile a minute; he didn’t know what to think, he didn’t want to reject Baekhyun if the shorter did end up asking him, but it was a little more difficult to have Baekhyun all to himself if he consistently wanted to have a night out with friends.

He’d have to think of something, as he didn’t want to hurt Baekhyun’s feelings, but he also wasn’t in a mood to meet new people; Chanyeol supposed he’d just have to deal with it, as Baekhyun’s happiness was worth it and maybe he’d learn some new things.

Chanyeol would have to practice holding a pleasant expression around people for long periods of time, because at least at work, he could fake it for a few minutes before letting his indifferent mask slide back onto his face.  He could already feel the muscles in his cheeks twitching in discomfort and Chanyeol rubbed at them softly; this was all for Baekhyun, he could do this.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bros, I am straight up not having a good time.  I was going through something, fam, but I'm like, 80% fine now.  I apologizing for just running away, can't promise I won't do it again :/ but I have started to write again, so....at least there's that.....hopefully my will to write sticks around.

Chanyeol could not do this.

Baekhyun had asked him hesitantly, and Chanyeol practically crawled over himself to agree to the plans and Chanyeol had pulled an all nighter in anxiety, staring up the ceiling, silently repeating:

_You stupid idiot, you idiot, you idiot.  As much as this the nicer way to get to know Baekhyun and his closest friends, this is also the quickest way to get rejected from his friend group and then Baekhyun will agree with them and leave your sorry ass._

Chanyeol sighed and rolled around in his bed fitfully and saw dawn just starting to peek between his curtains and he rolled over to groan loudly into his pillow, because this was a _horrible_ mistake.

He should at least attempt to get a few hours of sleep, because he’d definitely ruin everything if he fell asleep during whatever movie that they were going to watch.  Chanyeol exhaled slowly, trying to keep positive thoughts going, as he remembered Baekhyun’s texts, telling his friends to be kind and Baekhyun’s reassuring words in person that his friends were just weird and didn’t get out much; Chanyeol begged to differ about that, it was _his_ department that didn’t get out much as they stayed in a mancave of dimly lit darkness and computer screens.

Baekhyun’s friends all had sociable jobs, Yixing was a dance instructor and had a long waiting list of people eagerly trying to get into his class, he also taught chorography for entertainment groups from China, Japan, and Korea, he was living in Korea happily because he was constructing dance routines for a group of trainees, who were debuting in the summer, according to the texts that Yixing was stress venting to Baekhyun about.

Minseok was an English instructor at an elite college, he was fluent in Mandarin and Japanese too, he often was recruited as a translator and did public speeches as well as he had some political experience under his belt from college, he was turning 30 the following year and Chanyeol never felt so intimidated in his life to be next to someone so smart, and Minseok also helped with coaching at his friend’s soccer games, as his friend was a coaching manager for the soccer teams at the Ivy League college Minseok taught at.

Jongdae was a veterinarian and while he was more social with animals, Chanyeol also learned that he occasionally taught at the local doggy schools to help with training if he learned that they were short staffed, he was also a private vocal instructor throughout the week, Chanyeol had to dig deep to learn about this young man, Jongdae had been sought out in his mid-teenager years to become a trainee, but he already knew what he wanted to do with his life, Chanyeol learned that both he and Baekhyun had been scouted, but both had turned it down.

Chanyeol had been very grateful that Baekhyun had turned down the offer; he knew Baekhyun would have been a wonderful idol, he had heard Baekhyun sing during karaoke nights with Jongdae, hell, the world would never know what they were missing out on, but Chanyeol was happy to keep Baekhyun all to himself…most of the time.

Now, finally, Sehun was Baekhyun’s youngest friend by a few years, Baekhyun had met him through Yixing, as Sehun had a passion for dancing, Chanyeol had gone _deep_ in those early, _early_ texts that Baekhyun might not have thought existed anymore, so Chanyeol did see those cringy, yet endearing white girl wasted photos of Baekhyun and Sehun after Sehun’s first successful model shoots during a trendy fashion show that kick started his career.  Sehun’s career was mostly famous for his looks and Instagram followers, but the kid was smart and did charitable events for people and for abandoned pets, and Vivi had been a rescue dog and that pampered little puppy looked to be living the best of his fluffy life.

So, yes, this why Chanyeol was nervous to meet these people.

_Hi, I’m Chanyeol, I work in the IT department next to Baekhyun. I work with computers for a living during and after work.  Uh, I have a clan in the top 5 of Destiny and second largest guild in WoW on my server, want to raid some time?_

Chanyeol facepalmed; he was washed out next to Baekhyun’s friends, but he wasn’t about to chicken out, not when they probably held potential information that Chanyeol desperately wanted; there were more face-to-face conversations than texted ones that Baekhyun had with them.

It was obvious that Baekhyun talked about him in person and clearly liked him, it was just another minor barricade of four friends to get through and win their approval in order to secure his future with Baekhyun, because Chanyeol could keep that Kwon Hyuk-woo away from his beloved angel, he could fix anything that Baekhyun had an issue with, Baekhyun wouldn’t have to keep leaving home in a rush, or hungry, Chanyeol would happily wake him with soft kisses and promises of a warm, hearty breakfast and gladly start packing lunches in the morning.

He’d make sure that Baekhyun was properly cared for and watched over, and regardless of those four friends, Chanyeol wouldn’t let them stand in the way of his most precious person.

~~~

A soft buzzing woke Chanyeol, he blinked open his eyes sleepily, hand searching for his phone and he squinted and saw that it was a text from Baekhyun and he was instantly awake after that.  He saw that Baekhyun texted him and saw that Baekhyun said that he’d meet up with Chanyeol at the subway station in about an hour; he gave Chanyeol the directions as well because driving would have been too much a hassle, as Yixing’s place never had open spots for parking for visitors.

Chanyeol hastily got out of bed, he hadn’t realized that he had slept until 4 pm, he had literally slept his whole Saturday away.  He text Baekhyun that he’d meet him there before scurrying towards the bathroom to get ready, he didn’t wait for the water to warm up before he was jumping in and giving himself a quick scrub down and out the moment the water ran clear from suds.

He dried his hair and styled it just a little to make it look like he was somewhat put together after he got dressed, he pulled on a dark gray pair of nice fitting jeans and a nice, soft grayish-blue sweater that he wore a few times, as it usually got too warm in the IT office to wear jackets or pullovers.  He put in his contacts and was glad that he was listening to Kibum’s skincare routine, as his face was blemish free and smooth, he toyed with his hair a little more, before stop fussing with it, pulled on his Vans, grabbed his phone, keys, and crossbody backpack and hastily headed downstairs.

Chanyeol had to walk a little faster to make it to the subway, he had to take a solo trip first before making it to the same station as Baekhyun.  He slid his card through and rushed to catch the subway that ready to head to its next stop and he made it with seconds to spare before its doors slid shut and he had to stand as the train car started to move and periodically checked his phone.

The ride to the next station was short and Chanyeol was off and heading towards the exit, as Baekhyun said he changed his mind and wanted to take the bus as the subway they were supposed to take was going to be delayed for 30 minutes or so and it would take them a couple bus rides to get to Yixing.

Chanyeol wasn’t looking forward to that, but he’d silent suffer about it, because it wasn’t Baekhyun’s fault public transportation was being a righteous bitch.  He just walked up the stairs and he heard his name being called and looked up and saw Baekhyun waving at him, smiling apologetically and Chanyeol walked over to him, smiling warmly; his day was already made.

“I’m so sorry about everything,” Baekhyun apologized and pouted when Chanyeol ruffled his hair.  “Hey!  I’m your hyung, you can’t do that!”

“With that face, you’re my dongsaeng, I don’t care what you say,” Chanyeol teased and heard Baekhyun huff at him.  “And I don’t mind, this lets me stretch my legs and it won’t kill me to actually look where I live.”

Baekhyun laughed and ducked his head, “I promise to treat you to something for this.”

“You already bought me lunch, stop being sorry for stuff that isn’t your fault,” Chanyeol nudged him lightly.  “Now, c’mon, before we miss our bus!”

“Right, right,” Baekhyun nodded and hurried out of the station with Chanyeol following him.  He already found what bus they were looking for and saw that the next one would show up in the next ten minutes or so, hopefully, but Baekhyun never trusted their schedules.

Chanyeol stifled a smile when he saw Baekhyun pouting again as he looked at his phone—still his work phone—and let himself look over Baekhyun, loving the oversized sweater that was white and they both wore gray pants, but Baekhyun’s were lighter and tighter, and Chanyeol swooned when he saw Baekhyun wearing Overwatch D.VA Converse that were the pastel pink and blue with the little pink ears on the tongues of the shoes. 

Baekhyun caught him staring and his cheeks turned a little pink, “I know they’re childish…but I really like them.”

“They’re cute, Tracer and Hanzo are my two favorites,” Chanyeol smiled and saw Baekhyun light up.  It occurred to Chanyeol that he and Baekhyun never really talked about their interests…Baekhyun was so just easy to talk to about anything and everything that it never made Chanyeol force himself to bring in his hobbies to make conversation and he didn’t think it felt natural bring up Baekhyun’s interests, as he already knew them by heart at this point.

“I knew you played mobile games, but you play other games?” Baekhyun asked him eagerly.

“Yea, I play Overwatch, Destiny, and I dabble a little with PC games, if I really feel like hating myself, I’ll level grind on WoW for days,” Chanyeol laughed sheepishly.

“Holy shit, dude,” Baekhyun blurted and he heard Chanyeol give him a startled laugh.  “No, no!  That’s not a bad thing!  I like playing shooter games too!  Text me your I.D. and character names, I want to add you!”

This was becoming a dream come true for Chanyeol.

~~~

Chanyeol didn’t want the bus ride to end, mostly because he was enjoying Baekhyun talking to him animatedly about his favorite characters and his favorite things to do, Chanyeol listened happily and answered when Baekhyun would ask him what he liked to do.

“Dude!  That’s _your_ clan!?” Baekhyun gawked and saw Chanyeol nod.  “Your clan is second rank in the friggin’ world!”

“Meaning we’re nobodies,” Chanyeol laughed.  “It’s not that much an achievement, we’re just really active at night…so I’m very exhausted the following morning during a weekday.”

“Yea, I don’t blame you, just _wow_ ,” Baekhyun blinked. 

“Show me how you play and then I can get you in a spot,” Chanyeol promised and he saw Baekhyun give him a determined look.  He very much liked that look, a little _too_ much that he had to shift a little in his seat to get situated, but luckily Baekhyun wasn’t paying any mind to that, as he started to excitedly talk about the new Spider-Man game.

So, while Chanyeol had to silently put up with that, it was worth the discomfort to see Baekhyun smiling so brightly and all the way until their final stop, where Baekhyun was texting presumably Yixing, to tell him that they had showed up.

Chanyeol had thankfully calmed down by that point, he was just lowkey sweating at the surrounding area, because while Chanyeol made a pretty decent salary that he could support himself a future spouse and two kids and two dogs in a larger townhome, Yixing’s place was not something to just gloss over, even the outside of the townhomes were extravagant.

It had a more Western feel rather than the typical panel outside with either underground parking, or just lot parking, the townhomes had built in garages with drive ways the outside of the homes were dark brick, white windowsills were the accent for each townhome, there were thick shrubs littered with budding pink flowers lining the walkways and each section that had a space for someone to walk up their stairs a lamp pole was stationed there that were next to each handrails; it reminded Chanyeol of the old timey ones, he vaguely remembered watching some British show that was set in the early 19th century and their streetlights looked like that.

“I know, it’s a lot isn’t it?” Baekhyun laughed, taking Chanyeol’s silence for awe.  “But, Yixing is good at his job and a lot of people request for him,” he smiled and then paused.  “Oh, God, I made him sound like a stripper!  He’s not, he teaches dance classes…and not those pole dancing classes!”

Chanyeol laughed at Baekhyun’s spluttering, “Calm down, I wasn’t going to pry, what he does is his business,” he smiled at him reassuringly.  Chanyeol saw Baekhyun’s phone light up and he gestured for Chanyeol to follow him, “He lives on the other side,” he explained as they took the sidewalk further in.

Chanyeol followed him up a short flight of stairs and they were standing in front of a door, he looked around himself and concluded that Yixing had a rather strange addiction to plants, as thick ivy with white, budding flowers were coiled around the metal gate that was around the porch area of Yixing’s townhome.

 _Single, he’s much too busy to have a girlfriend or boyfriend, let alone to even own a cat._   Chanyeol concluded and looked back at the front door when it opened and he saw the man from the videos on Baekhyun’s phone, he was shorter in person, just about the same height as Baekhyun, dark wavy hair, dark eyes, cute dimpled smile, a slight accent to his words; Chanyeol wondered how he was single, but that wasn’t any of his business, Baekhyun was his business.

“Ah, so you’re Park Chanyeol, yes?” Yixing didn’t have to peer around, as he had to look up.

“Yes, hello,” Chanyeol inclined his head to the shorter.  “It’s nice to meet you.”

“You’re so kind!  I’m Yixing, please, come in!” Yixing was waving them both in eagerly.  As they slid off their shoes onto the floor mat by the door, Yixing grabbed Baekhyun by the arm, grinning, “The others are already here, we were playing some cards!”

“Sorry, the train we were supposed to take got delayed, so we had to take a couple buses,” Baekhyun apologized again to him and saw Yixing waving it off before patting his arm, helping him and Chanyeol hang their bags up too.

“It’s okay, you already told me!  Jongdae was getting paranoid that something had happened to you,” Yixing mused.  He jumped slightly when he heard a loud cheer from the down the short hall and heard someone hissing at Jongdae to be quiet.  He sighed softly, “Between you and Jongdae, I’ll be surprised if I don’t get a noise complaint letter by tomorrow morning.”

Baekhyun pouted at him, “Hyung, you’re so cruel!  I even smuggled booze over here!” he gestured to his messenger bag.

Chanyeol chuckled softly, “Are you sure that you’ll need it if you’re already loud?”

Yixing was grinning cheekily too, “He doesn’t need it, but that doesn’t mean that will stop him.”

“You’re both bullies!” Baekhyun pouted and hurried down the hall, whining for Jongdae.

Yixing laughed and shook his head fondly, “C’mon, I’ll show you to the others, as Baekhyun has just abandoned you, a horrible friend, really,” he jokingly said.

Chanyeol silently followed after Yixing, he turned the corner where Baekhyun had gone off too and saw that Baekhyun was still wrapped up in who he presumed to be Jongdae’s arms and his stomach clenched at the sight.  He stood a little awkwardly, fighting back his natural instinct to just fidget in discomfort when everyone had shifted their attention to Chanyeol.

Jongdae hugged Baekhyun tighter upon sight of Chanyeol, “Wow, you’re tall,” he muttered a little enviously.  He glanced over to the blonde-haired boy who was snickering from the couch, “Yah!  Be quiet, you lanky beanpole, go join forces with the other tall guy!”

“Maybe I will,” the smirk on the model’s face looked dangerous, but Chanyeol knew it was all for show. 

Chanyeol greeted him once he came over, it was obviously Sehun, as Chanyeol recognized his face from his social media accounts, but he played oblivious and greeted him respectfully.

“It’s nice to finally put a face to a name, I’m Sehun,” the younger greeted him.

“You too,” Chanyeol replied easily; he was a little surprised that Sehun hadn’t reacted negatively to that comment, maybe he watched too many dramas where models were offended that you didn’t know their name or their face.

“Oh?” Sehun trilled to look back at Baekhyun, who was now sandwiched between Minseok and Jongdae, he saw that he had Baekhyun’s attention.  “Does Hyung actually talk about me?”

“Just your cute dog,” Baekhyun stuck out his tongue.

“You do have a very a cute dog,” Chanyeol agreed and saw that Sehun practically preened, so this was this boy’s weakness, but Chanyeol should have known from the get go from how many pictures Sehun posted of his dog, before making a whole Instagram account for Vivi.

By process of elimination, Chanyeol saw Minseok get up next from the couch, Minseok was somehow shorter than Baekhyun, he was obviously the eldest of the group, just by how he held himself and greeted Chanyeol very formally that Chanyeol almost felt the need to call him _sunbae_.

“It’s nice to meet you, Chanyeol,” Minseok smiled kindly, and he gestured for Jongdae to come up as well, who timidly did, if not some little elbowing from Baekhyun, who honestly looked a little confused by Jongdae’s attitude.

Chanyeol wondered if Jongdae had somehow picked up a dog’s ability to pick out the bad people, not that Chanyeol was bad, maybe a little odd, but not like a molester or preyed on people and ate their body parts.  He was a little hesitant to talk to Jongdae, just by how odd he was being and he slightly stuttered his greeting, he didn’t like the way Jongdae was trying to size him up.

“You’re too damn tall,” Jongdae muttered, squinting his eyes slightly, he wavered a little where he stood.

 _Oh._   Chanyeol blinked.  _He’s drunk._

Minseok sighed and apologized meekly for his behavior, “Jongdae broke in the good soju and he’s very much a lightweight.  Please don’t have any offense to him, I promise he’s actually a very good person,” he rested his hand lightly on the other side of Jongdae’s waist.

 _And they’re together._   Chanyeol thought, looking between them briefly before smiling at him, “No offense taken, it’s been a very long week.”

“I delivered 32 kittens,” Jongdae blurted, looking teary eyed.  “Just on Friday morning…and then I helped deliver a fowl, probably as tall as you by now.  I love life, but at the same time…stop…”

Minseok sighed again and gave Chanyeol another apologetic look before steering Jongdae back towards the couch, murmuring softly to whatever Jongdae was rambling about now.

Baekhyun wandered back over, a sheepish smile on his face, “Sorry…I hadn’t known that they started to drink already.  This isn’t exactly how I imagined how you to meet my friends.”

“They’re fine and you’re fine, stop worrying so much, just enjoy your time,” Chanyeol said and his heart kicked up a few notches when Baekhyun grabbed onto his hand and pulled him towards the couch, Baekhyun pressed up against his side as there were already two other people on the couch, and Yixing and Sehun were on the loveseat.

They played card games for a few hours while they ordered in food, Chanyeol was neck and neck with Minseok, much to everyone’s astonishment because Minseok was not to be fucked with, and played a couple rounds of UNO until Baekhyun and Jongdae threatened to smother Sehun with a pillow for being a cheeky, little shit.

“Are we all agreed on the new Avengers movie?” Yixing asked once everyone was calm and situated back onto the couches, pulling up Netflix as he had been notified that they updated their movie list.

Chorus of agreements were heard.

Chanyeol had already watched it multiple times, but he really enjoyed that movie and wouldn’t mind watching it again for the nth time.  He settled easily back when Baekhyun tugged on him a little, murmuring for him to relax and really it was because he felt Baekhyun’s warmth, could smell the fresh laundry scent on his clothes; he thought his heart was going to explode from nerves.

They made drinking rules for things throughout the movie, Minseok made a quip about taking a shot every time they made a pop culture reference or any Stan Lee appearances and Chanyeol immediately disagreed to that mentally; he’d be fucking faded if he went through with that.

And Chanyeol was right, with every zinger or quip, Baekhyun was more or less leaning on him, Jongdae was sobbing into Minseok’s neck, who was silently drinking to probably drown back the tears, Sehun was leaning on Yixing, eyes shut, and Yixing his hood pulled up and occasionally sniffling.

Baekhyun was a _wreck_ , but Chanyeol’s wreck, Baekhyun was practically across his lap now, choking a decorative pillow between his arms, 6 shots and three beers in, his beloved was thoroughly _smashed._

Chanyeol patted Baekhyun’s back soothingly when it was finally _that_ scene and Baekhyun buried his face into the pillow and cried, “Me too,” he whispered sympathetically and felt Baekhyun curl into his side. 

When the credits rolled and they watched the after-scene credits, they all sat there in total silence before Baekhyun flung his cried into pillow at Yixing, frowning unhappily and eyes still watery.

“Don’t look at me!  I didn’t know it was going to be that depressing!” Yixing defended himself.

“We should have known the moment when the music was sinister,” Minseok murmured, eyes half-lidded.

Yixing nodded, moving himself out from being Sehun’s pillow and pulled the blanket that was folded on the back, over the younger and tucked it around him and yawned sleepily; it was almost midnight.

Chanyeol had to carefully situate Baekhyun back up, because as much as he like having Baekhyun on him, the heel of his hand pressing sharply against his femur was starting to hurt.  He felt Baekhyun lean against his shoulder drunkenly and he felt his insides become gooey as Baekhyun looked very sleep, eyes droopy, lips pouty, and clearly wanted to lie down.

“They usually crash over,” Yixing explained when he thought that Chanyeol was looking unsure what to do.  He bit at his bottom lip briefly and mentally pondered if he had enough floor rolls for an extra guest.

Chanyeol nodded at that, “Uhm…I won’t linger, I know how to get home from here and there should be a bus,” he said.

“No!” Baekhyun squeaked suddenly, lurching back onto Chanyeol, clinging.  “It’s too dark…and cold, you’ve been drinking!”

“Not as much as you and that stuff doesn’t bother me,” Chanyeol replied, teasingly poking Baekhyun’s pouty cheek.  “I’ll text you when I get home.”

“Stay,” Baekhyun whined softly, giving him a pleading look.

Chanyeol felt his will shatter almost immediately; it was honestly embarrassing how quickly it broke to a man the same age as him, but he was honestly too cute to handle and Chanyeol had a feeling this is how their whole relationship would go.

Yixing had pulled out extra floor rolls, blankets, and pillows for his friends, putting them on the ground for all of them to grab what they wanted, minus Sehun, who was out like a light on the loveseat.

Baekhyun claimed two floor rolls, two blankets, and two pillows for him and Chanyeol.  He nearly stumbled with it all, but Chanyeol was quick to help and he almost let himself kiss the taller in thanks, but tottered his way back to the front where his bag was, as he had packed sleep clothes, a toothbrush, and his charger.

Yixing came back with basketball shorts and a baggy shirt for Chanyeol, “I don’t think Baekhyun told you to pack anything, but I have spare toothbrushes and if you wear contacts, I have extra solutions and new cases you can use.”

“Oh, thank you,” Chanyeol replied, a little bewildered at how kind Yixing was.  He followed Baekhyun to the bathroom when the shorter told him to follow him and they brushed their teeth side-by-side and Chanyeol cleaned his contacts and put them in the clean contact case.

Baekhyun smiled when he watched Chanyeol blink a few times to refocus his vision, “You’re such a cute, blind bat,” he giggled and left the bathroom.

Chanyeol felt heat rush up his cheeks and cleaned up the sink area before heading back towards the living room, Minseok and Jongdae had already settled down, using Yixing’s personal bathroom.

Yixing still looked apologetic to have them all on the floor of his living room, “I still need to organize my spare room, I use it as an office, but it wouldn’t kill me to set up futon in there for guests.”

“I’d be happy to help you,” Chanyeol offered his assistance.  He wasn’t too shy about his body as he pulled off his sweater, but still kept his back to them; he did work out occasionally with weights and because he walked everywhere the majority of the time, he tended to walk off all that he ate.

He turned as he pulled on the baggy shirt and Chanyeol couldn’t help but notice Baekhyun on the floor, looking up at him, eyes trained on Chanyeol and lips softly parted.  Chanyeol heard Yixing thanking him for it and would most likely take him up on his offer, if Chanyeol truly didn’t mind, which the younger reassured him that he didn’t mind Yixing and wanted to return the favor for being so hospitable and lending Chanyeol sleep clothes and whatnot.

“You’re Baekhyun’s friend, and hopefully you think that I will be a good friend to you as well,” came Yixing’s answer.  “I shouldn’t keep you up any longer!  I apologize, I hope you have a goodnight and see you in the morning,” he said softly.  He smiled down at Baekhyun and gently ruffled his hair before moving to go check on Jongdae and Minseok as well before heading upstairs.

Baekhyun wiggled close when Chanyeol had finally lied down and gently rested his fingers on top of Chanyeol’s forearm, “He’s right,” he whispered, mindful of the three others in the room, “you are my friend, a good friend and I feel like I’ve known you forever from how well we click.”

Chanyeol’s face warmed from those soft words, he tilted his head to the side to look at Baekhyun; he so desperately wanted to kiss those soft looking lips, but Baekhyun’s eyes were half-lidded and Chanyeol didn’t want to ruin anything by coming onto him.  His lips curved into a small smile, “You’re a good friend as well, thank you for inviting me, I had fun,” Chanyeol truly meant those words.

Baekhyun hummed and tapping his fingers lightly against the warm skin of Chanyeol’s arm before promptly falling asleep, missing the quiet chuckle and the soft touch of his fingers pushing his hair out of his face.

Chanyeol tried to engrave this moment into his brain forever, as he’d never have the chance to sleep next to Baekhyun this intimately again, not unless they became a couple, or they hung out after work and alcohol was involved.

He was content with this, even if Baekhyun wouldn’t remember it in the morning, Chanyeol traced the back of Baekhyun’s soft hand lightly with one finger before pulling back, not wanting to wake him; Chanyeol couldn’t wait to actually hold Baekhyun in his arms as they fell asleep.

He’d just have to press a little, steer Baekhyun into the direction of a relationship; he’d make sure that Baekhyun wouldn't regret it.


	7. Chapter 7

Chanyeol knew that having a partner meant seeing every angle of them, or at least the ones that weren’t hidden like a deep, dark secret, some of those couldn’t be hidden, like the ones of what they looked like hungover and retching into a toilet.

Currently, he was on standby, holding a damp washcloth and had a water bottle sitting on the bathroom sink countertop; it was barely 10 in the morning, and Chanyeol had been jerked from his sleep due to Baekhyun tripping over him in his haste to make it to the bathroom.

Baekhyun was panting weakly and shaky when he finished getting sick and his eyes were wet; he looked pitiful.  He sat back slowly and gave a weak thanks when Chanyeol passed the washcloth to him and he wiped his mouth and leaned his head back against the wall, eyes shut.  He heard the crack of the water bottle being open and his stomach clenched unhappily at the thought of having to swallow water and he tilted his head away, “Don’t want it…”

“You’re dehydrated, you probably should have drank a bottle of water before going to bed,” Chanyeol murmured.  He didn’t want to lurk, but he also didn’t want to leave Baekhyun unattended; his decision was made for him as Yixing popped up behind him, ducking under Chanyeol’s arm that he had propped up against the door frame.

“You’re alive!” Yixing chirped and heard Baekhyun weakly gurgle in response.  “C’mon, you need to drink that water and then eat some dry toast, I know you don’t want to, but I promise you’ll feel better.”  He turned to smile at Chanyeol, “You’re a wonderful nurse, Chanyeollie!  I should hire you onto my staff for when I work the trainees into shape!”

“You mean torture,” Baekhyun weakly corrected, squinting up at Yixing. 

“Eh, same difference, now c’mon, give me your hands!” Yixing was making grabby motions at Baekhyun until the younger finally complied and let Yixing haul him up onto his wobbly feet. 

Baekhyun gave Chanyeol a timid look, “Sorry for being such a gross mess, I promise I’m not an alcoholic.”

“No judgement here, I was just worried,” Chanyeol reassured him and followed them towards the kitchen, where Minseok and Jongdae were already perched at the kitchen table, both holding a cup of tea.

Jongdae looked more like a corpse, face sallow, he looked over to Baekhyun, “I sound better retching than you do.”

“Dae, literally, _shut up_ ,” Baekhyun grumbled, dropping onto a cushioned stool and put his head down on his folded arms.  He just shut his eyes and pretended that he didn’t feel like he was Death’s door and this was a hard reminder that he was in fact not in that college bounce back phase anymore, where he used to drink two bottles of wine the night before an early class and then still be up bright and early for an 8 am lecture.

Chanyeol already concluded that buses were out of the question, he knew it would be a little pricey taking an Uber back up to where Baekhyun lived, but it would be worth it, because Baekhyun could properly nap and Chanyeol could take care of him.

He was satisfied with that plan and when he looked away from Baekhyun, he saw that Yixing was giving him a curious stare and Chanyeol shyly averted his gaze and he caught the brief flash of Yixing’s amused smile.

“Chanyeol-ah, would you mind helping me in the kitchen?  You seem to be the most alive one today,” Yixing smiled and turned to go through the open doorway leading into the kitchen.  He turned back around and saw Chanyeol standing there, looking a little hesitant and Yixing beckoned him over, “I’m just going to make a _very_ light breakfast today for everyone, would you mind helping?”

“Sure,” Chanyeol nodded, heading over to the sink to wash his hands.  He dried them on the offered hand towel and then he was whisking eggs in a bowl, while Yixing rinsed the rice.  He hated that he knew Yixing was going to confront him about Baekhyun, he knew that look, when friends know that their other oblivious friend is being admired or hit on.

Chanyeol didn’t even have the chance to mentally prepare himself before Yixing was putting the rice in the cooker and then facing Chanyeol, leaning against the counter with a cheeky smile and Chanyeol tried to give him his best confused expression.

“You _like_ Baekhyunnie,” Yixing said softly, they were far away from prying ears, but he still wanted to trek carefully into this conversation, especially by how Chanyeol stood tense.

Chanyeol dropped his gaze, not seeing how Yixing looked charmed by Chanyeol’s shyness, he put the bowl down to fiddle with the omelet pan before pouring a thin layer of the whisked egg in it, “I can’t like him like that, I don’t want to do that to him,” he murmured.

“What do you mean?” Yixing asked, he started to dice green onion and ham to sprinkle it into the layering of the egg, he saw Chanyeol frowning with a concentrated look on his face as he rolled the egg.

“He just got out of a relationship, right?  It sounded like a bad one,” Chanyeol played innocent and he heard Yixing sigh quietly, he looked at Yixing, faking a saddened expression.  “It’s true then, isn’t it?”

“Yes, but…that guy was _horrible_ ,” Yixing frowned.  “You don’t seem to be anything like Hyuk-woo.  He was arrogant from the start, we all just thought he had a different attitude when he was with Baekhyun, kinder, at least, but he really only cares about his career and…whatever pretty face he has on his arm for the time being.”

Chanyeol was grateful that Yixing wasn’t looking at him to see that dark expression come over his face; he quickly flipped the rolled egg off the pan before it started to burn.  He divided it up, he didn’t plan on eating; his appetite lost due to the fact that Kwon only viewed Baekhyun physically, and it sounded like he hadn’t even bothered to learn anything about Baekhyun.

“Are you all right?” Yixing tilted his head curiously at Chanyeol’s stony silence and he was worried that he had angered him.

“Yes, sorry,” Chanyeol apologized, forcing a gentle smile onto his face to not alert the elder.  “I’m more out of it than I figured, sorry.”

“Oh, no, I should be sorry, you’re my guest!” Yixing fretted, waving his hands frantically at Chanyeol.  He still felt bad when Chanyeol told him it was fine and that he liked to cook for others, “Not an active cooker for yourself?”

“No, not really,” Chanyeol confirmed, taking the plate out to where the others were sat at, none of them had even moved a hair out of place.  He heard the plates being sat down carefully and he looked over to Baekhyun, making sure he hadn’t been disturbed, and he resisted the urge to rub a comforting hand down Baekhyun’s back.

Instead, he busied his hands with dividing breakfast, he looked up when he heard shuffling feet and saw a groggy Sehun coming into the dining room, white-blonde hair a perfectly tussled mess in that annoying model grace; Chanyeol could be a little envious, he supposed…

Sehun sat down at an empty spot, blearily looking around; he wasn’t even mad that no one woke him up, as he probably would have been grumpy, he quietly thanked Chanyeol when the elder sat a divided rolled egg on a plate before him and Yixing came with juice that his very dehydrated body was wanting to soak up immediately.

“Sip it, Sehunnie,” Yixing reminded and saw Sehun nod, doing as he was told; habits of fretting refused to die, especially when Sehun was the youngest of his entire friend group.  He brought out fresh, small bowls of rice for everyone to pick into to help fill them up without eating too much and he smiled kindly when Jongdae thanked him profoundly for the food, even if it wasn’t much due to being hungover.

Chanyeol sat himself next to Baekhyun again, lightly nudging him, “Baekhyunnie,” he murmured and heard Baekhyun groan softly.  “You need to drink some water and eat a little bit, you’ll feel better, even if you feel like dying while doing it.”

“That’s why I don’t want to do it,” Baekhyun whined, lifting his head to give Chanyeol a pleading stare to not making him eat or drink.

“you’ll feel better, I promise,” Chanyeol stated, nudging his breakfast at him.

“Why aren’t you eating?” Baekhyun asked him accusingly, thinking that Chanyeol was too hungover to eat too.

“I’m not much of a breakfast person, I’ll eat later,” Chanyeol replied and heard Baekhyun huff, and watched the shorter divide his breakfast into half portions.  “You don’t need to do that.”

“If I’m eating, you’re eating too,” Baekhyun grumbled and scooted the plate and bowl to be between them.  He thanked Yixing and Chanyeol for the food and picked up a tiny piece of the Tamagoyaki and nibbled on it carefully.  Baekhyun looked around him and saw Sehun eating his without complaint, as were Jongdae and Minseok, maybe all he needed to do was eat a couple bites before his stomach decided that food was a good cure.

Chanyeol tried not to openly preen when Baekhyun looked satisfied with the roll Chanyeol cooked and ate a little more quickly, Chanyeol nudged his portion back to Baekhyun and saw him frown a little at him, “I swear, I don’t usually eat until noon, I’m not hungry,” he promised.

“Fine,” Baekhyun sighed, but took the other half of the egg roll and rice for himself and thanked him softly for the food again.  He was the last to finish and the others had gone to pick up the living room and change clothes, Minseok and Sehun were helping with the dishes, and Baekhyun told them that he’d wash his own dishes, as he was the last to be done eating.

When he did finish washing his plate, bowl, cup, and utensils, Baekhyun had quickly grabbed his clean clothes and changed, dumping them in the bathroom hamper and saw the clothes that Chanyeol had borrowed were there too, before heading back into the living room, Minseok and Jongdae were standing, thanking Yixing for his hospitality and were then moving to Chanyeol, saying how nice it was to meet him and looked forward to seeing him again, before the couple went to go bother Sehun.

It made Baekhyun feel good to see that his friends happily accepted Chanyeol, Yixing especially, which made Baekhyun extra happy, he was still curious why Jongdae hadn’t caught to Chanyeol like a fish to water, but Jongdae also had been drunk that night and now was hungover; he was probably just ready to go home and lie down for the morning.

“Are you leaving, also?” Yixing asked when he saw Baekhyun lingering in the doorway.  He saw Baekhyun nod and he crossed over to the younger and pulled him into a hug, murmuring softly in his ear, “I approve of Chanyeol, friend wise…and something more for you.”

Baekhyun’s face pinked and he ducked his face into Yixing’s shoulder, “Please don’t start with that…” he pleaded quietly.

“Why?  I mean it!” Yixing replied, smiling brightly.  “I won’t keep you, take care Baekhyun, I’ll text you later.”

Baekhyun nodded and thanked him softly and moved away to say goodbye to his other friends, he tried hard not to look over when Yixing had come over to Chanyeol, cheery faced and didn’t think that Yixing was making it awkward, as he was just thanking Chanyeol for all his help and wanted to hang out with him sometime.

Baekhyun’s attention was dragged back by Sehun and soon he was distracted by conversation and didn’t realize that about fifteen minutes had passed before there was light pressure against his elbow and he looked back and saw Chanyeol.

“Sorry…I should have asked, but I planned an Uber pick up for 11:30, they’ll be here in five minutes,” Chanyeol sheepishly cut in.

“Oh!  Well, thank you for doing that,” Baekhyun replied.  He finished up his conversation with Sehun and Jongdae, hugging them both again before moving onto Minseok and Yixing again as well before gathering his bag.

“If you don’t feel like taking the subway back, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind dropping you off at your place,” Chanyeol said as he followed Baekhyun out the front door.  He saw their Uber waiting for them and waved to him and opened the door for Baekhyun.

Baekhyun honestly didn’t want to take a bumpy ride back to his apartment, he agreed, as it would probably be quicker to get there, versus the station.  He asked the driver and was pleased that he wouldn’t mind changing the route, Chanyeol already had the fees covered and Baekhyun said he’d repay him.

“Don’t worry about it,” Chanyeol waved it off and saw that Baekhyun wanted to argue about it.  “Honestly, if I wasn’t okay with it, I wouldn’t have suggested it.”

“Okay…fine,” Baekhyun grumbled, feeling guilty about Chanyeol speeding money on him.  He was already nodding off by the time they reached the freeway and Baekhyun dropped his head against Chanyeol’s shoulder; out cold.

Chanyeol only wished he had put his phone in his other pocket so he could have taken some pictures.

~~~

Baekhyun woke up when he had been lightly shaken, when they were turning into his apartment complex and blinked sleepily, he murmured for the driver to turn left and head straight towards the back before they were stopped at the apartment building that Baekhyun’s was at.

Chanyeol grabbed their bags and thanked their driver before sliding out, he offered hand to Baekhyun, who wasn’t protesting to the extra help, he stood next to Chanyeol and patted at his pocket and fished out his keys before leading the way to his place.

“You can hang out if you want, catch up on some extra sleep, if you need it,” Baekhyun said, holding the door open for Chanyeol as he was carrying their things.  He walked up the stairs and stopped at the first door and unlocked his front door, sliding in first so he could hold the door for Chanyeol again.

Chanyeol’s stomach took the perfect opportunity to growl lowly and he heard Baekhyun’s adorable giggles, “Guess it’s close to my breakfast time,” he murmured, slightly embarrassed.

“I can make you breakfast before I shower,” Baekhyun said, directing Chanyeol to put their bags by the couch.  He looked over to him, “Make yourself comfy, you can watch TV or start up the PS4,” he instructed Chanyeol, who nodded at him.  “Do you like French Toast?”

“Yes, I just never make it because I never like cooking for myself,” Chanyeol chuckled.

“A true shame for yourself, because you’re a good cook and I’ve only tasted one thing you’ve made, but it was really yummy, texture wise and taste,” Baekhyun smiled and then hurried off toward the kitchen to make Chanyeol some breakfast.

That praise had Chanyeol’s ears ringing and body tingling pleasantly.

 _Would it be too forward to start cooking breakfast for him during the weekdays?_   Chanyeol wondered and he shook his head; they were still just friends in the new stage of the occasional hang out.  He glanced over to his bag and looked back towards the archway that led into the kitchen, Baekhyun was busy, but Chanyeol didn’t want to risk anything in case if Baekhyun needed his help with something and the last thing Chanyeol wanted was to get caught.  

So, he still brought his bag over to him, but dug out his Switch and started that up and played Pokémon Let’s Go, until Baekhyun was done with breakfast and went over to the kitchen table, “Thank you, it looks really good,” Chanyeol meant it, the sliced strawberries were lain on a fluffy bed of cool-whip and Chanyeol knew this was probably something Baekhyun probably put on his fruits and ice cream, because of his love for sweet things.

“Thanks, I really tried not to make it crisp how I eat mine, Jongdae grills me and says I eat it burnt,” Baekhyun huffed and tried hard to stop the flipflop of his heart as Chanyeol looked completely smitten; it was _just_ breakfast.

“I’m sure I’ll love it regardless,” Chanyeol replied.  He sat down and Baekhyun told him that he was going to shower quickly and then they could hang out and just lounge around until Chanyeol wanted to go home.

Chanyeol waited a couple minutes, taking a few bites until he was for sure that Baekhyun was settled and showering before getting up and collected his backpack, he unzipped the inside pouch and pulled out a few mini cameras that he could tag to walls.

His first stop was Baekhyun’s room, he almost rummaged through his dresser, but there wasn’t enough time for that, he scanned the room, looking for a good angle, there was bookshelf pressed in the corner that had books, guidebooks, and figurines on the shelf, Chanyeol stuck the mini camera on the tallest shelf that was high enough that Baekhyun wouldn’t notice and Chanyeol could still get a good view of the bedroom.

Chanyeol quickly left the bedroom and went back to the living room and he nibbled at his bottom lip worriedly, as there were only a few pictures hanging on the walls, pictures of Baekhyun’s family and his dog, and a couple corner plants, but it was obvious that Baekhyun tended to those as the soil was damp.  He looked over to the balcony doors, the blinds that could be pushed to the side had a dark curtain resting on top, Baekhyun must have used that to make the living room dark if was watching a movie.

It was a little risky, especially if the curtain came undone from the wall, or Baekhyun wanted to take it down, but Chanyeol gingerly tucked the little disk to the middle section at the top, where the curtain was tacked to the wall, it wasn’t visible from the couch, and Chanyeol checked for a gleam if the lamp was turned on, but it seemed like he was in the clear.

Chanyeol ended up putting the third camera back in his bag; he’d have to set it up in Baekhyun’s office…somehow, but that would come later.  He sat back down to finish his breakfast and as he did that, he set up the camera app on his phone, he synced the cameras to his phone and let out a soft sigh in relief when the image was clear and there wasn’t anything obstructing them.  He could zoom in, but wasn’t able to change the angle, he was just glad that it had a wide perception of the rooms.

He had the surveillance sent to his spare laptop, he could watch live feed from his phone and up to six hours of it before the data would be transferred to his laptop and he’d have to link the drives so he could review it on his phone too, but for now, this was good enough.

Chanyeol heard the shower stop, there were a few minutes of silence from the bathroom before he heard the door softly squeak open and Chanyeol glanced at his phone, a lashing hot buzz started high and then quickly shot low as he observed that Baekhyun only in a towel, Chanyeol quickly locked his phone; he couldn’t watch that just yet.

A few minutes later, Baekhyun returned to him, hair damp, pink cheeked, but looking far more awake than he had previously been and he smiled when he saw that the dishes had been cleaned up and stacked neatly in the dishrack, “You didn’t have to do all that!”

“You made me breakfast, it would have been rude to just leave the dirty dishes,” Chanyeol said, he had moved to the couch and was aimlessly playing on his Switch.

“I hope it was good, at least,” Baekhyun said, settling on the other end of the couch and grabbed the remote.

Chanyeol looked over to Baekhyun, letting his eyes skim over him slowly, as the shorter was distracted with finding something to watch, “Oh, it was _very_ good.”


	8. Chapter 8

It was Wednesday when Chanyeol got a notification on his phone for activity from Baekhyun’s apartment, which was odd, Chanyeol set up motion detection when Baekhyun left the apartment for work, it was for cases like this.

He was currently on his work phone, listening to an attorney yammer his ear off about an issue that Chanyeol could easily fix, it just required him to remote in and take control of their desktop, but of course, Chanyeol had to suffer to listen to the whole thing before he could even do anything about it.

Chanyeol distractedly unlocked his phone and clicked the security app and he scowled when he saw a figure standing in Baekhyun’s living room, they had climbed in through the balcony and he recognized Hyuk-woo’s face when the rapper had turned to the side to walk down the hall towards Baekhyun’s bedroom.

He flicked to the bedroom camera and saw Hyuk-woo standing in the bedroom, watching him poke through Baekhyun’s belongings, Chanyeol hastily interrupted the attorney on the other end, “I’m so sorry, but I’m having an emergency right now, please let me transfer you,” he sent the call over to Kyungsoo before using his cell phone to call the resident officer again, explaining that he saw a strange man go lurking behind the apartment and that he hasn’t come back and that he may have broken in.

He remembered reading in Baekhyun’s email that the leasing officer manager had sent out emails stating to keep your doors locked throughout the whole day, windows shut and locked when you were leaving, and to keep the sliding doors leading out to the patio or balcony shut and locked too if you were out, there had also been a description of Hyuk-woo’s person to keep a look out for him and Chanyeol didn’t fail to mention that either in the phone call.

When he hung up, Baekhyun was texting Jongdae, telling him that he got a call from the leasing office and that police were being sent over to his section for a possible break in, and that he was going over there, but was sort of afraid to go by himself.

Chanyeol purposely wandered out to the hall and that’s where he saw Baekhyun pacing outside the doors of the office, “Hey, Baek,” he greeted, the smile he used slowly slid off to concern when Baekhyun turned to him with worried eyes. “What’s the matter?”

He wondered if he could have been a wonderful actor, because Chanyeol was surprising himself with how well he was faking his expressions and tones, especially when Baekhyun came up to him, relieved, yet still worried looking.

“I think someone broke into my apartment building, I don’t know if it was mine specifically, but…my leasing manager called, she said that the police were on their way, but I’m too afraid to go over there,” Baekhyun said in one rushed breath.

“Woah, woah, calm down,” Chanyeol soothed him, “I can go with you, just let me tell JunMyeon and I’ll be out here in a couple minutes, okay?”

Baekhyun nodded, still looking fairly upset, a small glossy sheen to his eyes.

 _Mm, Kwon, I was planning on just having you walk free, scare you off, but now you’ve worked my Baekhyunnie up to tears and that’s just not going to fly with me._  

Chanyeol shot a text to JunMyeon and then checked the surveillance cameras, he didn’t see Hyuk-woo in Baekhyun’s apartment anymore and he gritted his teeth a little, part of him had hoped that the police would bust him for trespassing and for breaking and entering, but it was clear that Chanyeol would have to take matters into his own hands.

He came back to Baekhyun, not even a minute later, “Hey, let’s go,” Chanyeol gave him a reassuring smile and gently placed a hand on Baekhyun’s shoulder, feeling the shorter relax a little under his touch.  He guided them towards the elevator, he was pleased that it was empty for once and could have Baekhyun to himself, and because Baekhyun was upset, the last thing he probably wanted was to be mushed in an elevator.

They crossed the street and headed towards the subway station and Baekhyun lead the way, as they took different routes and Baekhyun swiped his card through, he informed Chanyeol that the next one would be in ten minutes or so.

“You don’t have to be scared, Baekhyun, the police are there and there’s going to be a bit of commotion, I doubt that whoever was there will come back,” Chanyeol murmured and he saw Baekhyun hesitantly shake his head.  “What is it?” he asked gently.

“It was Hyuk-woo,” Baekhyun murmured.

“And that is?” Chanyeol pressed and saw Baekhyun look up at him, it dawned on his face that he had never spoken about him before to Chanyeol. 

“My ex-boyfriend, I never told you about him, other than that one day when we met outside,” Baekhyun stated and he saw Chanyeol nod.  “The description match was him…I don’t know how he got inside my apartment, I never leave anything unlocked and I didn’t give him a copy of my key.”

Chanyeol hummed thoughtfully, but it was clear to him that Hyuk-woo could pick locks and somehow even managed to get a wire between the sliding doors and jimmied the wooden pole out the way that acted as an extra lock that laid in the track to keep the sliding door from opening, even if the door itself was unlocked.

“I’m just afraid, because if he can do that, what if he shows up in the middle of the night?” Baekhyun whispered fearfully.  “I know he was upset when I told him off, but…he’s never showed any signs of being abusive.”

Chanyeol’s stomach twisted at that thought too, he looked to Baekhyun, a serious look on his face, “You can stay with me,” he didn’t make it sound like an offering and he mentally chided himself for making it sound like a demand.

_Now you just sound like a creep, he probably has Jongdae or Sehun close by!_

Baekhyun looked embarrassed, “I wouldn’t want to intrude.”

“You’re not, but if you don’t want to stay with me, you don’t have to, do your other friends live nearby?  I know Yixing lives far,” Chanyeol said, tone lighter.

Baekhyun shook his head, “Jongdae and Minseok…are together and I wouldn’t want to intrude on them and Sehun lives in the heart of Seoul, it would take me a whole day to just get out of Sehun’s condo…”

“Well, I’ve got a spare room and a not strict bathroom schedule,” Chanyeol concluded for them and saw Baekhyun’s relieved expression.  “We’ll stop at your place, do a walk through with the authorities through your apartment, you can pack a bag, and I’ll give you the rundown of my place, granted, it’s a one floor apartment, two bedrooms, no, I do not have a roommate, it’s an office space for my musical equipment, and the room is yours until you feel safe to go home.”

“Thank you, Chanyeol,” Baekhyun’s expression was sincere.  “I mean it, you didn’t have to go out of your way to do this.”

“You’re my friend, Baekhyun,” Chanyeol smiled softly.  _More than that, but you don’t have to know that._

“I hope you don’t really treat all friends like that,” Baekhyun winked, he stepped onto the subway, not seeing Chanyeol’s baffled expression.

_Fuck, are you a mind reader?_

~~~

They reached Baekhyun’s apartment twenty minutes later, they hopped off the bus last and Chanyeol didn’t have to be a mind reader himself to see that Baekhyun was nervous.

Chanyeol did everything in his power to keep Baekhyun somewhat distracted from the jitters.  He saw that there were two squad cars parked out front of Baekhyun’s building and what looked like the leasing manager, judging by the dress slacks and the work polo that had the apartment's name embroidered on it, the middle aged woman was stood on the sidewalk, walkie-talkie in hand.

“Ms. Sha?” Baekhyun hesitantly called out and he saw the women turn her to head to face when her last name was called. 

“Mr. Byun,” Ms. Sha said, worry on her face.  She looked over to Chanyeol skeptically, “And who might you be?”

 _Protective, must be protective mother and grandmother.  I get that, Baekhyunnie’s got a youthful face._   Chanyeol smiled at her reassuringly, “Sorry, Ms. Sha, I am Park Chanyeol, a friend.”

“He offered to come with me when I was too nervous to come here alone,” Baekhyun told his leasing manager.

Ms. Sha nodded, still a little skeptical, but her sharp gaze softened when she directed her attention back to her tenant, “The police scouted the outside, I’m sorry, but they are searching through your apartment, yours was the only one that had dirt scuffs on the balcony trim, they’re dusting for prints.”

“I already have a suspect,” Baekhyun frowned, “I don’t want to point fingers, but my ex was here a little over a week ago, he had been escorted off the property.”

Chanyeol had to stop himself from blurting out that it was Hyuk-woo.  He gave Baekhyun a worried stare, “He was?”

“Sorry, it had just been handled, so I didn’t want to talk about it,” Baekhyun replied.

“I sent out an email giving his description, the anonymous caller gave that same description, but we won’t know until they’ve pulled prints,” Ms. Sha informed Baekhyun.  “I am pushing for a 24/7 patrol until next Wednesday.”     

Chanyeol filed that piece of information and he was glad that he had set up Baekhyun’s apartment, the only thing that he was worried about was if the police were going do a harsh sweep of the place and that his cameras may be discovered, mostly the living room one.

They all heard on the walkie-talkie that they cleared the six apartments, Ms. Sha radioed back that Baekhyun was here and the tenant of the apartment that had the scuffing on his balcony.

A few moments later, a police officer exited the building and gestured towards Baekhyun, to which Baekhyun confirmed that it was his place, and the officer looked over to Chanyeol.

“I’m just a co-worker friend of his,” Chanyeol said and Baekhyun agreed to that. 

“Your apartment was cleared, but we do believe that your apartment had been broken into, the lock was undone, the wooden pole was removed from the tracks, and there are dirt buildups on the edging of your balcony, indicating that the soles of whoever’s shoes slid on the siding and make those marks,” the officer said, leading all three of them inside.

Ms. Sha frowned worriedly, “Were you able to pull prints?”

“Unfortunately, not,” the officer shook his head.  “The balcony railing and handles on the inside and outside of the balcony door have nothing on them, we believe that the intruder may have worn gloves, wiped away their prints.”

Chanyeol scowled slightly, perhaps Hyuk-woo wasn’t as much as an idiot as he had pinned the rapper to be.  He laid a comforting hand on Baekhyun’s shoulder, seeing the shorter look uncomfortable at that information; he’d shake Hyuk-woo up for upsetting Baekhyun like this.

“Do you think you’ve gained unwanted attention from anyone?  Have you spoken with anyone who seemed off?” the officer asked him as he led them inside Baekhyun’s apartment where they stood in the living room.

Baekhyun shook his head, “I can really only think of my ex, and I’m not being spiteful,” he replied.  “He was reported being on the property, lurking outside of my apartment before the resident officer had escorted him off the grounds.”

The officer nodded, “We were informed of that.  Please, look around and make a list if anything is missing or out of place.”

Baekhyun stepped away from the other two, giving them an apologetic look, “You two don’t have to stand here, you can sit, or Ms. Sha, if you have other pressing matters, you don’t have to waste your time.”

“Oh, this is very important, Baekhyun,” Ms. Sha replied.  “I’m just so sorry that this has happened, it makes me feel as if I am not being a proper manager of my tenants.”

Chanyeol mentally thanked that she hadn’t been one of those leasing managers that weren’t hyper observant of everything, but still cared for everyone renting there; Baekhyun deserved the best protection and he promised that he wouldn’t let anything like this happen again.

~~~

The four police officers remained for another 30 minutes, two inside and two outside, Baekhyun had went through all his belongings, and Chanyeol was itching to check his surveillance and see what Hyuk-woo had taken or done, as he had been too much in a rush to meet Baekhyun to watch what had happened.

Baekhyun reported that nothing had been stolen and nothing seemed out of place, the officer they had spoken with seemed a little surprised, but Baekhyun was certain that nothing was taken, his laptop was still by his bed, his rings, necklaces, and earrings that he occasionally wore were all still in his jewelry box in his closet, none of his shoes or clothes were missing, and his games and gaming consoles were still intact.

“Well, if you find something amiss, please don’t hesitate to reach out and file the missing items to us,” the officer told Baekhyun.  “I would advise you to check in with friends or family when you’re heading to work, when you come home, and during the morning.”

Baekhyun was nodding at that, “My friend, here, Chanyeol, I’m a little too nervous to stay home alone, so he offered to let me stay with him for a few days.”

“And you work with Baekhyun?” the officer looked at Chanyeol.

“Yes, well, I work as an IT consultant for his office.  We’re not in the same office, but his is right next to mine,” Chanyeol informed the officer.  He didn’t really like how the officer was studying him, like he was profiling Chanyeol, but for what?  Chanyeol hadn’t done anything wrong; he was looking out for Baekhyun!

“You keep an eye out for any suspicious activity and of course, report it,” the officer gruffly said to Chanyeol.  He looked to Ms. Sha, “I’ll take your report of the call, my men here will wrap up and be out of your hair.”

“Thank you for everything,” Ms. Sha replied.  She wished Baekhyun and Chanyeol well, before escorting the leading officer and the other police officer out.

Baekhyun thanked them before slowly closing his apartment door and leaned against it with a heavy sigh, “I can’t believe this happened.”

“I’m just glad that you weren’t home,” Chanyeol said earnestly, arms yearning to wrap around Baekhyun and hold him close, to keep him safe from his fears and mostly out of sight from other people.

“What if it was Hyuk-woo?” Baekhyun fretted, eyes looking watery.  “I know I told him off and told him to stay away from me and my family, but what if he’s actually crazy?”

Chanyeol gently guided Baekhyun to sit down on the couch, “Do you have tea?  You’ll probably feel better if you talk about it, too.”

“You don’t have to do all that, Chanyeol,” Baekhyun looked guilty.  “I just want to pack a bag and leave…but I’ll tell you everything when we get to your place,” he promised and got up and slowly walked to his bedroom, afraid that Hyuk-woo might be in there, even though the officers had cleared the whole place.

“I’ll be right here, just shout if you need me,” Chanyeol stated when he saw Baekhyun’s hesitancy.  He watched Baekhyun disappear down the hall and to his bedroom and Chanyeol immediately pulled out his phone and rewound the video feed.

Hyuk-woo had entered Baekhyun’s bedroom and had poked through his things, Chanyeol had already witnessed that, he saw Hyuk-woo carefully pick through the middle drawer of Baekhyun’s dresser and saw him pull out a couple shirts and he gritted his teeth.  He knew that the rapper was just getting back old shirts of his, but it still pissed Chanyeol off that Hyuk-woo broke into Baekhyun’s home with such ease, as if he had done it countless times before.

Chanyeol closed out the video feed, if he worked himself up now, Baekhyun would be suspicious of him, so he took a few calming breaths and silently swore that he’d stop Hyuk-woo himself, but he couldn’t act out now, because without a doubt, the police would be sending a PI to go track the rapper down and do some digging, so Chanyeol would have to hold back for a few weeks, maybe even a month, unless Hyuk-woo did get busted and hauled off for jail.

Part of Chanyeol hoped that Hyuk-woo got put away, but a small part, a very _dark_ part of Chanyeol wanted to tend to the issue himself; his fingers twitched at the idea and it frightened him somewhat that he wouldn’t have minded taking care of Hyuk-woo himself, because it was going to be all for Baekhyun.

That thought alone made Chanyeol relax; he would do _anything_ for Baekhyun.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On top of not wanting to write or think, I saw Endgame and life is so hollow :/

Chanyeol was proud of himself for picking up after himself and vacuuming the other day, so his place wasn’t messy and he had taken out the trash that morning too, so he wasn’t self-conscious of his living area.

He led Baekhyun to his second room that was adjacent to his bedroom, the nudged the door open and he could proudly say that he kept _everything_ neat and orderly in there, his computer set up for composing was clear of anything on the desk, other than his sound mixer equipment that was synced up to his computer, wireless keyboard, wireless mouth, and he had a cute moon light that was supposed to soothe as it turned to mellow colors; he usually just left that on.

Chanyeol wasn’t ashamed of his figurine display case that had many Marvel and DC characters sat on the glass shelves and he had a One Piece flag tacked against the wall that the futon flip out couch was placed under it.

Baekhyun sat his duffel bag and backpack on the floor next to the door, he went to help Chanyeol pull the couch out into a mattress, he could feel that Chanyeol was lifting the majority of it and he really tried not to be envious at the fact that Chanyeol was also stronger too.

“I’m sorry that you’re surrounded by my equipment,” Chanyeol apologized, moving an electric and acoustic guitar off their ground stands and put them on the wall mounts before folding the ground stands up and slid them under the futon mattress.

“Don’t apologize, I should be the one to say sorry for invading your space,” Baekhyun said meekly.  He looked around in wonder though, he saw the electric keyboard pushed into a corner and his eyes lit up, “You play piano, too?”

“Mm,” Chanyeol nodded.  “Do you?”

“I took lessons when I was younger and throughout high school, I haven’t played in college, but sometimes Jongdae has me play when he’s teaching vocal lessons,” Baekhyun told Chanyeol.   

“You’ll have to show me what you can do one day,” Chanyeol smiled and saw that Baekhyun looked happy with that too.  “Work hasn’t ended yet, so there shouldn’t be an extra crowd out, do you want to get some ramen?”

“I haven’t found a good place in such a long time, when I lived in Bucheon, and in my town, there was a small ramen shop owned by an elderly couple, they had the best ramen on the block,” Baekhyun sighed wistfully.

“I can’t promise it’ll compete, but I’ve always been fond of it compared to other places,” Chanyeol shrugged. 

“You’ve lived in Seoul your whole life?” Baekhyun asked.  He saw Chanyeol nod, “No wonder you can navigate the city so easily.  I mean, Bucheon can get just as crazy, but I mean, it wasn’t as overwhelming…”

“Well, I’m glad that we became good friends, I’ll gladly help you,” Chanyeol smiled to him and loved the gentle smile Baekhyun sent back.  “C’mon, before the food rush happens, we can grab a to-go order and play some video games.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Baekhyun happily replied and followed Chanyeol.

~~~

“You know, I’ve never actually took the time to actually explore around, I’ve just always been so one-track minded to just go to work, go home, and repeat, even the on weekend, I refuse to leave my home, unless one of my friends threaten me to come out,” Baekhyun said as they crossed the street, he unashamedly clung to Chanyeol’s jacket sleeve.

Chanyeol purposely slowed down, loving how it felt to had Baekhyun’s warmth soak into his clothes, “Really?” he asked distractedly.  He heard Baekhyun hum at him, “I mean, it’s mostly just crowds, shops, street food, and whatever else decides to pass through.”

“Still, it wouldn’t hurt to just check everything out every once and a while,” Baekhyun sighed.  “I wasn’t so much of a hermit before.”

“Well, I’ve always just thought as a kid, you want to be out with your friends and do whatever, break some rules, I don’t know…but when it shifts to adulthood, you’ve got a full-time job and it’s tiring, you just don’t have that energy, so just going home and lounging about is just as fun,” Chanyeol stated.

“You’re right, ugh, I’m getting old,” Baekhyun groaned and he heard Chanyeol laugh heartedly.  “Oh, hush, you stay inside too!”

“Yea, but I have game friends,” Chanyeol mused and sniggered when Baekhyun lightly smacked his arm.  He nodded to the corner store, “This is it,” he held the door open for the shorter.

Baekhyun stepped on in and was surprise to see that the restaurant was nicely put together, the food smelled amazing and Baekhyun’s stomach rumbled; he hadn’t eaten lunch yet.

Chanyeol led them to the front counter for take out orders and smiled charmingly at the person, who smiled back to him, “Hello, again.”

“Ah, Mr. Park, brought a friend this time, hmm?” the waitress asked.

“Yes, he’s been searching for a place that has great ramen and I have thrown this place in as a recommendation,” Chanyeol grinned.

“Oh, the pressure!” she mused and smiled warmly to Baekhyun.  “I know his order by heart and not because he orders here frequently.”

“Hey!  I’ve dialed it back to at least once a week,” Chanyeol defended himself.  He looked towards Baekhyun, seeing that he looked a little uncomfortable, as his grin seemed a little forced and Chanyeol took a small step back from the counter.

 _He thinks I like her…Oh, no, Hyunnie, I’ve only got eyes for you.  Do you get jealous that easily?  My darling, you have nothing to worry about._   Chanyeol gently placed a hand at the small of Baekhyun’s back, nudging him forward, but still kept him close to where their sides brushed.

Astonishment filtered through Chanyeol when he felt Baekhyun press closer to his side as he looked at the large menu hanging above the waitress and Chanyeol pretended to read too, but he could tell that the young lady was a little miffed, he caught her imploring stare and watched her duck her head, murmuring that she would be right back.

It was also easy to tell that Baekhyun had relaxed the moment she said that she’d be back to take Baekhyun’s order, leaving them alone and Chanyeol had to bite back an amused grin; his Hyunnie was so obviously jealous.

It took all of Chanyeol’s willpower to not just pinch his soft looking cheeks and reassure him that he was not interested in the waitress, So, as it indicated on her nametag.  He simply just nudged back against Baekhyun, teasingly bumping against him and saw Baekhyun’s amused look, “Don’t get distracted by me,” Chanyeol winked and saw Baekhyun hastily looked away, grumbling that the taller man was being dumb, and Chanyeol just chuckled softly, not able to hold back from ruffling Baekhyun’s hair.

So had come back, taking Baekhyun’s order, it was at least obvious to Chanyeol that she was a little crestfallen and Chanyeol tried not to feel bad, he honestly never really spoke to So when he came alone, it was either her or another person taking his order, as she was mostly out on the floor, cleaning off tables and making sure the customers were happy, she would occasionally stop by where Chanyeol was and ask how he was doing, but this was the most flirtatious she had been and Chanyeol felt bad for leading her on like that, he honestly thought it was simple banter until he saw how Baekhyun reacted.

He would have to pull back on that, Chanyeol couldn’t risk the thought of losing Baekhyun because he thought that Chanyeol was interested into another person.  Chanyeol gestured for them to sit down at the tall chairs that were aligned to the side and dropped down in one chair as Baekhyun moved to do the same, he brushed shoulders with Baekhyun as he pulled out his phone and kept a little in Baekhyun’s space, before pulling back and to his utter most pleasure, Baekhyun ended up following.

“Battle me,” Baekhyun declared, starting up the Pokémon Go app on his phone.

“Fine, but I’m going to wipe the floor with you,” Chanyeol smugly proclaimed, bumping against Baekhyun’s side again, who just smirked at him, causing a thrilled shiver to vibrate up Chanyeol’s spine to see much a cheeky expression on his beloved’s face.

“Wanna bet?” Baekhyun challenged.

“You’re on,” Chanyeol agreed; he may have an undying love for Baekhyun, an insatiable yearning to be with Baekhyun, and a constant urge to please him, but he’ll be damned if he ever lost a match; he was two wins higher than Baekhyun in total and he wasn’t about to lose.

Soon, when they were close enough, Chanyeol would bring up penalty rounds, but for now, Chanyeol was content to bet on food.

~~~

“You cheated,” Chanyeol grumbled, he was a little bitter, but he privately felt like he was winning when he was feeding Baekhyun a golden piece of tempura and it was a decently sized piece of shrimp tempura too.  He also felt like he was getting a bonus award of seeing Baekhyun looking so adorably swamped in his oversized shirt and night pants; he honestly wanted to either swaddle Baekhyun in the softest blanket or pin him down on the couch and make out with him.

Baekhyun munched happily, “Sore loser,” he teased, swallowing his won appetizer.

They were back at Chanyeol’s apartment, sitting on the couch, Baekhyun had won by just a fraction of a hair, he _certainly_ had _not_ nudged Chanyeol’s foot off the chair he was sitting on the edge of and made him lose his balance, _no_ , Baekhyun was a fair gamer…perhaps not when it came to food though.

“Sure am,” Chanyeol grumbled sarcastically.  He dipped a fried green in a little bit of a sweet vinegar sauce and fed Baekhyun another piece, he was crossing his legs at this point when Baekhyun made another _very_ satisfied sound, and Chanyeol was torn between being aroused and smitten because while Baekhyun was making some very non-PG sounds, his cute expressions, eyes turned into crescents, cheeks puffy with food, and just how he ate in general was so damn adorable.

After Baekhyun finished with that, he moved onto his ramen, taking a careful bite as the noodles were hot, he hummed contentedly, “Okay, these are pretty good,” Baekhyun confessed and pouted at Chanyeol’s triumphant expression.

Chanyeol put on a movie and they both settled back into the couch, slurping noodles and munching on tempura, Chanyeol even found an unopened bottle of plum wine his sister had dropped off to him almost a month ago.

Baekhyun let out a satisfied sigh, feeling a little drowsy from being full and he could only admit to himself that he was a little bit of a light weight, he had a little over a glass of plum wine, but he never drank all that much.  He drew his legs up, tucking them against his side and settled more comfortably; he never felt so comfortable before, he felt himself nodding off.

Chanyeol startled a little when he felt something land on his shoulder and he glanced over and saw that it was Baekhyun’s head resting on him.  He felt his heart turn gooey and he relaxed, feeling warm and happy, suddenly, the movie was far less interesting and all Chanyeol could focus on was Baekhyun pressed up against him.

At some point, Chanyeol had rested his cheek against Baekhyun’s head, eyes slowly shutting, comforted by the softness of his hair and the light scent of Baekhyun’s shampoo.  Chanyeol wanted this moment to last forever, he slid his hand to cup Baekhyun’s knee, thumb brushing softly over the top, he felt Baekhyun shift closer and Chanyeol lightly rubbed his cheek against Baekhyun’s hair.

He was out like a light before he could even register to even pull back away to not make it weird.

 _A little cuddling never hurt anyone._   Chanyeol sleepily mused and let himself drift to sleep.


	10. Chapter 10

“You look like a lovestruck _fool_ ,” Kyungsoo sneered, he was leaning against Chanyeol’s desk, a cup of coffee held between his hands to warm them, as the AC was kicking in hard today.

“What?” Chanyeol distractedly asked, pulling his eyes from his phone; he still had fifteen minutes before he officially to start working, as JunMyeon was strict about not having overtime unless the server room caught on fire.

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes from behind his glasses, Chanyeol’s response proved his point, if it weren’t for the almost gleeful expression on Chanyeol’s face, “Did you get an Internet girlfriend or boyfriend?  I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this happy before, _ever_.”

“I’m not dating anyone,” Chanyeol replied, it still hurt to say those words, but soon enough he would be with Baekhyun.  He remembered how it felt to wake up next to Baekhyun on the couch, despite his back hurting and his arm was numb, but somehow, they ended up curled next to each other on the couch, Baekhyun tucked in his arms, the TV had powered down from being inactive, the sun was starting to creep through the blinds, making him feel so relaxed.

It had been the most magical moment of Chanyeol’s life.

He had woken up early enough to shower and start breakfast, the smell of freshly cooked food roused Baekhyun, who pattered sleepily into the kitchen, the throw over blanket Chanyeol had put over Baekhyun was resting around his shoulders like a cape, and he sleepily, adorably asked if breakfast was ready.

It was a memory Chanyeol had been repeating since they got onto the subway all the way up to the office, he left Baekhyun’s side a little reluctantly, holding himself back from kissing his cheeks and finally his adorably, pouty lips.

It had also been obvious to him that Baekhyun had wanted to say something, as he had opened his mouth, before closing his mouth and shaking his head softly, and then smiled at Chanyeol and wishing him a good day at work before going through the frosted doors of his law firm’s office.

“Earth to Chanyeol!” Kyungsoo snapped his fingers in front of Chanyeol’s face a couple times.

“What?” Chanyeol blinked and heard Kyungsoo’s annoyed sigh; he couldn’t help but gain an embarrassed blush to filter onto his face after that.

“I was asking if you were still going to set up the video conference up for Attorney Lee’s meeting today with like, three other attorneys.  They were having an issue with working the equipment and it starts in 30 minutes,” Kyungsoo repeated himself.

“Oh…right,” Chanyeol nodded, getting up, nearly bumping into Kyungsoo, who hastily took a step back, so he wouldn’t get sloshed with hot coffee.  “Sorry, Soo,” giving Kyungsoo an apologetic look.

“Don’t worry about it, lover boy,” Kyungsoo teased and wandered off to his desk, shaking his head amusedly; Chanyeol was usually a goof, but wow, he was going to hold this over him for a long while.

~~~

“You looked absolutely frazzled today,” Baekhyun teased Chanyeol the moment he sat down next to him on the bench outside by the lake.

 _What is with people and commenting with how I express my emotions?_   Chanyeol mentally grumbled, because JunMyeon had even said something about his elevated mood, which Chanyeol thought he was concealing quite well; he’d have to brush up on self-control.

“Not so much frazzled about the equipment, just the people using it,” Chanyeol mumbled before taking a bite of his sandwich; they both got chicken sandwiches and salad today, both opting for water for lunch as undoubtfully, they both had consumed too much caffeine.

Baekhyun gave Chanyeol a curious look, “Is that all?” he asked him kindly.

 _No.  Hyuk-woo has fallen off the radar, he hasn’t posted anything since breaking into your place and I can’t track him down._   Chanyeol obviously kept that to himself, he nodded to Baekhyun, giving him a light smile, “Sorry, it’s nothing major, just a sore back.”

He saw a very light pink hue cover where Baekhyun’s cheeks were most round and saw him avert his gaze, turning so it looked like he was busying himself picking up his bottle of water from the ground.  Chanyeol didn’t know what he was so embarrassed about, he shockingly hadn’t had morning wood pushing into Baekhyun’s lower back, all they had done was cuddled against each other as they slept on the couch, did Baekhyun think that it was all moving too fast?

“It’s my fault for that,” Baekhyun said, keeping his eyes lowered, feeling a little jittery.  “I…fell asleep on you and you got trapped.”

“I wasn’t trapped, I was tired too and I didn’t want to get up,” Chanyeol shrugged at him.  He didn’t miss those morning texts Baekhyun had sent to Jongdae, panicking that he felt like he had come onto Chanyeol and somehow taken advantage of him, to which Jongdae wanted to know why he had stayed at Chanyeol’s place, and Baekhyun promised to explain everything in person after a boy’s night out on Friday.

That last bit made Chanyeol a little uncomfortable, because it sounded like it was just going to be Baekhyun and Jongdae, and for some reason, Jongdae was suspicious of Chanyeol; he was extremely sure he hadn’t done anything to tip Baekhyun’s friend off.

Baekhyun relaxed a little at that information, “That’s good, because I was told I have a tendency to become an octopus when I sleep,” he laughed sheepishly, giving Chanyeol a meek smile.

Chanyeol laughed, patting Baekhyun’s knee, “Nah, you didn’t do that, I promise.”

“Good,” Baekhyun sighed in relief.

“Now, c’mon, I’m gonna wipe the floor with you this time,” Chanyeol started up his Pokémon Go app and saw the fire light up in Baekhyun’s eyes, silently accepting his challenge.

~~~

The remainder the week had gone a little too quickly for Chanyeol, Thursday evening had came and went, they had a quick supper, Baekhyun had made dinner that night and Chanyeol tried not to make it too obvious that he was clearly checking Baekhyun out, as Baekhyun had changed again in into his lounge clothes; it was a little warm out, so Baekhyun had changed into some cotton sleep shorts and a loose T-shirt and Chanyeol had to excuse himself when Baekhyun had bent over to pick up a used paper towel off the ground that he had dropped.

It had been a little too stifled in the apartment during dinner on the couch, the movie was actually being watched, as Chanyeol couldn’t focus on videogames and Baekhyun was worried that he had ruined dinner somehow, but really it was because Chanyeol was fighting to keep his self-control in check.

It also didn’t help that Chanyeol hadn’t jerked off once in almost four days, because he had been too busy trying to watch over Baekhyun and now that he had Baekhyun in his apartment, Chanyeol didn’t want to frighten him off, as he was a little loud when he was in the mood and he had a grown habit of sighing Baekhyun’s name when he was finished with his fantasy.

Friday had come and by lunch, Chanyeol had been startled because a blizzard ice cream up had been placed on his desk, he looked over and saw Baekhyun looking nervous, Chanyeol frowned worriedly, because Baekhyun was acting funny.

“I should probably go home this weekend…” Baekhyun had murmured and he saw Chanyeol’s questioning stare; he wouldn’t admit that it gave him a tiny bit of hope that Chanyeol wasn’t annoyed with him.  “I’ve most likely overstayed my welcome.”

“You haven’t,” Chanyeol answered hastily, almost slurring his words together.  “Baek, I’m not forcing you to leave, if you still feel too nervous to go home, you can stay with me until you think you’ll be safe.  Or…if you’re tired of my place…we can crash at yours, get you used to being home again, but I’ll be there this time to protect you.”

He saw Baekhyun’s face turn pink and Chanyeol wanted to pinch his cheeks, “O-okay, I mean, I’ll stay with you, b-because I only have one room…and I doubt you’d want to share with me, I get pretty violent and clingy in my sleep, it’s a weird combination.”

Chanyeol just smiled reassuringly at him, “Okay, then it’s settled, you can stay with me until you’re sick of me.”

“That won’t happen,” Baekhyun said quickly and nervously rubbed at his neck.  “I’m so award with this stuff…please, just ignore me.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Chanyeol replied, adding a little flirtatious quirk of a grin and saw that Baekhyun hadn’t shied away at that, he had been intrigued of the shift of the atmosphere.  _Oh, you honestly had no idea that I’m into you.  Sweetheart, if_ only _you knew._ This new realization made Chanyeol want to somehow keep Baekhyun home with him tonight and for the rest of the weekend, but he couldn’t keep Baekhyun away from his friends, Chanyeol couldn’t deprive Baekhyun of his friends.

Baekhyun smiled fondly, “Okay, it’s good to know.  Uhm, and I’m sorry in advance, but Jongdae wants me to hang out with him tonight, so I’ll come with you and get changed before meeting up with Dae.”

“Of course, no worries, Baek, I’ve got a raid tonight with my crew on Destiny, so don’t feel like you’re ditching or something, because you’re not,” Chanyeol informed him and saw Baekhyun’s shoulders relax again.  It would also give him a perfect amount of time to make a quick trip at the mini convenience store on the corner of the block to pick up a few things that he needed to restock on.

“Okay…I’ll see you later tonight,” Baekhyun nodded.  “Also, I’m apologizing because we’re having a work lunch, one the attorneys bought lunch for our office…so I’m going to staying in today, the ice cream was for that reason and because I thought had ruined something.”

“Stressing over nothing,” Chanyeol shook his head fondly.  “Go eat, Baek, I’ll see you later.”

~~~

 _He will be back later, just chill out._   Chanyeol mentally fussed to himself, he still couldn’t help but worry because Baekhyun looked too adorable in his oversized cardigan, he had a plain sky-blue shirt under it, he looked too good in those light gray, form fitting skinny jeans, and to make it even better, he was wearing black high-top vans, the same ones that Chanyeol owned.

God, they’d be the cutest couple on the block with matching clothes, if not the cutest couple of the whole world.

Baekhyun toyed with the cuffs of his dark gray cardigan before huffing and left them rolled down, he collected his wallet and phone, he stopped by Chanyeol, who was plopped on the couch, pretending to be focused on starting up his PS4.

“Be careful,” Chanyeol said to him, acting like he just caught sight of Baekhyun. 

“I will be, um…how late do you plan on staying up?” Baekhyun asked him hesitantly.

Chanyeol was curious about the question before it dawned on him, “Oh!” he blinked and got up to grab his keys; he had a few on his keyring, so Baekhyun didn’t even notice the copy of his own apartment key that was safely snug between Chanyeol’s car key and office key.

He had a spare key on top of fridge, but wanted to prove that he cared and worried for Baekhyun and give him his main key that he used, it must have charmed Baekhyun, because the shorter looked flatter, yet nervous.

“I promise to give this back to you when I come back,” Baekhyun was serious and Chanyeol wondered if this was how Baekhyun normally looked when he was doing his paralegal work; it was pretty hot.

“See you later tonight,” Chanyeol winked and walked with Baekhyun until they were outside, waving him off and watched him until he couldn’t see Baekhyun down the straight path anymore, but he knew the station was close, so while his heart still did nervous flips for Baekhyun’s wellbeing, he had to remind himself that he had lived here for a few years and that it was a very safe neighborhood.

 _He’d be much happier here, closer to work, closer to the stores, no ex-boyfriend, and more importantly, he’s with me_.  Chanyeol thought happily as he collected his spare key from the top of the fridge and then backtracked his way to the ground floor and outside, he walked the opposite direction and headed towards the convenience store.

Chanyeol was at least a little meek at first, the aisle was big for all cold medication and gummy vitamins, there was one little section at the end towards the pharmacy that held the safe sex objects, everything that anyone needed to get it on with a partner or a one-night fling.

It held the basics, nothing too raunchy (just a few flavored lubes that he pondered if he should get one) that Chanyeol would have to either venture into a sex store or order online, he grabbed normal lube and a decent sized box of condoms, not too many to make it weird, and not too little to make it seem like he was uninterested to have continuous sex with Baekhyun.

Chanyeol flicked his gaze over the four flavored lubes that the store on the shelf, he certainly voided cherry and orange, the other was melon and he rolled his eyes at the generic flavor, and lastly, there was strawberry; he really hoped Baekhyun wouldn’t mind that flavor choice, as Baekhyun had a taste fixation for it.

The best part about this mini market?  They were updated to self-checkout stations.

No awkward eye contact or quips about his purchases, so Chanyeol swiped those items quickly out his basket, into a dark gray plastic bag, paid for his stuff, snagged the receipt, and Chanyeol out was out of the store in fifteen minutes flat.

He stored his stuff in his bedroom, he recycled the bag and settled back onto the couch, turning on his TV and Ps4 this time, while his game loaded, Chanyeol checked his work phone and saw that Baekhyun had text Jongdae that he was on the subway and that he’d meet at his place in twenty minutes or so.

Jongdae replied and said that they could meet up at the university café, as that’s where he was right now, and it was closer—Chanyeol checked—as he was finishing up with a group of students for their singing lessons, he was filling in for the professor, who apparently had been out the whole week with a cold.

Chanyeol locked the phone; he wasn’t interested in what Jongdae had to complain about in _long_ conversation blocks.  What he did care about was maybe questing for a bit before having some time to himself, not that he hated having Baekhyun in his space, it was the opposite, he _wanted_ Baekhyun to be in his space, he wanted to be _in_ Baekhyun’s space, more so _him_ in general, but Chanyeol would be patient about it.

Chanyeol knew he would have a couple hours to himself, so he started on a couple quests and mind-numbingly played for an hour and half, talked with some of his guildmates, he actually declined the raid invite, explaining that he had some stuff to do, apologizing and that he’d hit next week’s raid.

Without even thinking about it, Chanyeol was getting aroused and he wasn’t even looking at any pictures of Baekhyun yet; he had just shifted on the couch to get more comfortable when he felt his hardness brush against his basketball shorts that he had changed into and he flinched before stretching out on the couch.

Chanyeol checked his phone and then his work phone and didn’t see any new messages, so he assumed that Jongdae and Baekhyun were met up at this point, because Baekhyun had sent something almost an hour ago, saying that he was on campus and heading to the café.

He postponed the session he wanted to have on the couch, why do this here when he could crash onto the bed that Baekhyun was currently using.  Chanyeol had to shimmy somewhat towards the spare room as it was uncomfortable to walk, he saw the pristinely made bed and half shut the door, he got onto the bed and pushed his face into the pillows, breathing in and groaned lowly, feeling his hips jerk on the onslaught of arousal pooling in his gut; it was Baekhyun’s shampoo lingering in the material of the pillowcases.

This was perfect for him to get off to, especially with the wicked fantasy he was conjuring up.  He hoped that Baekhyun would be preoccupied for the next 30 minutes or so, because Chanyeol was going to make this last.

~~~

As Baekhyun promised, he retuned an hour and half later, placing the key on the kitchen table; it was around eight and the TV was off and eerily quiet and it made Baekhyun’s skin crawl.

He tiptoed towards Chanyeol’s room, the door was open ajar, feeling a little shameful because he was spying on him, and saw that Chanyeol was already asleep in bed, laptop still playing some video and Chanyeol was slumped against his pillows, earbuds still in.

Baekhyun felt himself smiling endearingly and he hastily backed up; he needed to slow down.  He couldn’t lie to himself though, he was attracted to Chanyeol, he was a very good-looking man and he was very funny, he shared a lot of traits with Baekhyun and it was just _so_ easy to be around Chanyeol that he hated traveling alone without him to go see Jongdae.

At the memory of his friend, Baekhyun sulkily headed towards the guest bedroom, quietly shut the bedroom door, and changed back into his pajamas.  Baekhyun dropped onto the bed with a soft huff and laid down, he squinted, as he could almost smell Chanyeol’s cologne more sharply than usual, but didn’t think too much of it, as this was Chanyeol’s apartment and Baekhyun wasn’t going to protest because Chanyeol smelled good.

He lied on his side, phone out, he text Jongdae that he was back at Chanyeol’s and told him that he was going to watch a movie; his sentence seemed clipped and lacked the emojis he’d throw in his messages, but Jongdae had really hurt his feelings.

A light conversation had turned into a scolding one and Baekhyun was offended that Jongdae was sort of bossing him around like he was his senior, telling him that he didn’t approve of Chanyeol and that there was something off with the taller man.

It hadn’t been drunk thoughts either that Jongdae hadn’t been able to keep to himself when they had gone to Yixing’s, Jongdae still felt the same week later, Baekhyun hadn’t noticed at the time that Jongdae hadn’t eaten what Chanyeol had made, but he remembered now that his friend had shuffled it off his plate and even Minseok’s.

Baekhyun hadn’t been happy with that knowledge; Chanyeol was a good person, so why was Jongdae being so rude?  He had confronted Jongdae about that, but he hadn’t given anything other than that Chanyeol “seemed shady” and that pissed Baekhyun off.

Jongdae had apologized when he saw how hurt Baekhyun looked, turning meek that his words had cut deep and tried to just say that it wasn’t anything Chanyeol had done personally to him, which Chanyeol had literally done nothing, Baekhyun had curtly told him.

The conversation of Chanyeol had shifted to work related matters and then to what Jongdae and Minseok were planning for the next weekend, Baekhyun had only been half-heartedly in the conversation, before Baekhyun couldn’t take it anymore, he didn’t want to keep the meet-up going as if Jongdae hadn’t trash talked Chanyeol.

Baekhyun had murmured that he needed time to get over what Jongdae had said before hastily leaving; he had even brushed by Minseok, who had just entered the café, he had stayed late grading papers was what Jongdae told Baekhyun when Minseok wasn’t with him.

He could say that he felt better just being in Chanyeol’s apartment; it was calm in here, Baekhyun didn’t feel so lonely, it was actually cozy in the guest bedroom, signs of life, Baekhyun could just imagine Chanyeol sitting at the desk chair across from him, composing music and his heart warmed; he wanted to listen to Chanyeol play.

It wasn’t that late, just passing 8:30, but Baekhyun had a long day of work and friendship drama; sleep sounded like a better friend currently and Baekhyun pulled the warm blanket over himself; he got cold easily, he was happy that Chanyeol had a thick, soft blanket that he kept in the closet in this guest bedroom.

He silently wished he was back on the couch again with Chanyeol spooned up behind him; Baekhyun had never felt so safe and warm before in his life.  He idly wondered in his dreamy thoughts if he could have Chanyeol that way, it surely wouldn’t hurt to try, as it seemed that Chanyeol did like him.

He was filled with sleepy determination, but first, sleep.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love writing slow burn, but omfg I HATE slow burn at the same time, so a break from slow burn for once!!
> 
> I'm also taking a TINY break rn from writing, I'm still pecking away at the next chapter.

Come Saturday morning, Chanyeol felt well rested and happy; he lied on his back, just letting the relaxation of the knowledge that it was Saturday and he had today and tomorrow to just chill and do nothing, well, he wanted to do one thing, which that was called Byun Baekhyun, it was obvious to his own body what it wanted.

He had woken up before Baekhyun and started to make breakfast, making a good splay of crispy bacon, toast, eggs and rice.  He was finishing up on the scrambled eggs and had kept them on the back burner, he didn’t hear Baekhyun shuffling around, but it wouldn’t be long; he hoped to have time to check Baekhyun’s texts.

Opening the app, Chanyeol saw that Jongdae was apologizing, _a lot_.  Curiously, he read them after checking down the hall and saw that the door to the bedroom Baekhyun was staying was still shut.

Scooping some steamy rice and eggs into his mouth, he read them and he frowned when he saw that Jongdae was apologizing about bringing up Chanyeol.  He flicked through the texts to see if he had been a key topic the few other days, but most of them were just videos and gifs.

Chanyeol startled when he heard soft foot steps behind him and he casually slid the phone into his sweatpants pocket and moseyed on over to the toaster and started to prepare fresh toast, acting as if he hadn’t heard Baekhyun approaching.

“Morning,” Baekhyun murmured sleepily.

“Oh, you’re up!” Chanyeol greeted, turning to casually lean against the counter.  He gestured to the breakfast he had made, “Help yourself, still fresh.”

“You’re wonderful,” Baekhyun sighed happily and sat down.

 _Jongdae thinks otherwise._   Chanyeol thought and sat across from Baekhyun, preparing his own plate; he had sat the juice out moments ago and poured himself and Baekhyun a cup. 

Baekhyun thanked him again for the food, but his smile was a little dim and he saw that Chanyeol was giving him a curious look, “I’m sorry…I’m just tired.”

“Seems to be more than that,” Chanyeol murmured, he was leaning on his forearms that he had folded in front of him.  He could see that Baekhyun was giving him a hesitant look and Chanyeol patiently waited; Baekhyun wasn’t the type to conceal things from friends, not intentionally, of course.

“It’s stupid,” Baekhyun sighed, shoulders dropping sadly.  He looked at his breakfast, “I got upset with Jongdae, he…had some opinions that I didn’t agree with and he got upset that I couldn’t see his view.”

 _I don’t care what anyone thinks of me, only your opinion matters to me._   Chanyeol nodded at him, “People can be like that sometimes, sometimes they don’t try to see things from another’s view, because they’re so intitled to their own.”

“But Jongdae isn’t ever like that,” Baekhyun defended his friend.  “He’s never…been so mean before, not about others before.”

“What was this topic about?” Chanyeol asked him, already knowing the answer. 

At that question, Baekhyun looked guilty, shrinking down on himself, “It was about you,” he murmured, looking ashamed.  “I just told Jongdae that I was staying with you for a few days, until I could brave myself back up to go back to my apartment, but he was so _upset_ at that.”

That sparked curiosity in Chanyeol, but he kept the speculative expression from sliding onto his face, choosing to remain impassive as Baekhyun explained himself.  He tilted his head slightly, “Did he prefer that you stay with him?”

“He was upfront about that, he and Minseok have a spare bedroom at their place, he says that I don’t know you that well,” Baekhyun sighed.  He poked at his half-eaten bacon strip with his fork, “He says I should be wary of you, but he doesn’t even know you!”

Chanyeol preened internally as Baekhyun was defending him, being flustered and upset at one of his closest friends, because that friend couldn’t accept Chanyeol.  He pretended to look vaguely hurt, Baekhyun still saw the look and reached out to gently touch Chanyeol’s wrist, “I didn’t know he hated me that much,” Chanyeol mumbled, dropping his gaze to the kitchen table.

“He doesn’t hate you, I just don’t know why he’s acting like this, he had the audacity to say it was his “animal instincts” giving him warning bells,” Baekhyun scoffed towards the end.  “Minseok doesn’t dislike you, he’s just naturally reserved, it’s the professor personality that’s just been built in him, he _always_ looks like he’s studying you.”

Chanyeol cracked a small smile, it was clear that Baekhyun was trying to cheer him up, he gave Baekhyun a well timid expression, he felt Baekhyun press his very pretty fingers against Chanyeol’s wrist again reassuringly, “I’m not…I’m not trying to start something or upset you, but…did you and Jongdae used to date?  I mean, it’s totally normal for friends to react a certain way when they’re worried…but Jongdae…it seemed a little, I don’t know…personal?”

Baekhyun had a high color to his cheeks, slowly sliding his hand back, “You’re the first to ever connect something like that,” he confessed softly.  “Our other friends don’t even know, not even Minseok,” Baekhyun continued, looking embarrassed.  “Jongdae and I had dated for a long time, for almost 5 years before we decided to just be friends, because we had to go to different colleges, we still kept in touch, but…it was hard to even do that.”

Chanyeol felt his gut freeze up at that; he had just made a left field jump, because there had been _nothing_ in Baekhyun’s or Jongdae’s social media feed from the past that indicated that they had been in a relationship.  Irrational jealously trickled in him, it was now startlingly clear that Jongdae still had _some_ feelings left for Baekhyun, the younger man had never actually gotten completely over Baekhyun, even if his relationship with Minseok was solid, as far as Chanyeol could tell.

“We never shared it with anyone, I mean, our parents knew of course, but outside them, no one knew, I haven’t even told Yixing, not even when we had been in a relationship,” Baekhyun continued.  “When we broke up, I never thought I would get over Jongdae, he had been my first everything,” he flushed, “I mean…we were planning on starting a future together, we thought we could make the whole different college thing work, but it just didn’t pan out how we wanted, so we mutually ended it, we’re still friends obviously.”

“Did it hurt to see him move on?” Chanyeol asked him suddenly; a simmering anger sat heavy in his gut.

“Yes,” Baekhyun frowned.  “I remember when Jongdae said that he wanted to meet up with me, I was going to tell him that I didn’t care about the distance of our schools, I was _going_ to make it work, I didn’t care how I did, I just wanted him back, but when I had met up with him, he had brought Minseok along, they were holding hands, even though Minseok couldn’t see it, I saw the guilt in Jongdae’s eyes…I was so upset, I felt _betrayed_ ,” he bitterly admitted, glaring at the table,  “and then that’s when I met Hyuk-woo in my hometown, I wanted to use him to move on.”

Chanyeol bit back a scowl at that name, “And things didn’t get better after that,” he concluded.

“He wasn’t abusive, he was just a liar and a cheater, but I was too upset about Jongdae to let Hyuk-woo go, I wanted Jongdae to see that I had moved on too, so I dated Hyuk-woo for about 2 years before recently ending it with him, because he could steal and lie to me, but God help him when I learned that he stole from my ill mother,” Baekhyun’s hands clenched into fists.  “I could care less what happens to him now, he’s horrible and I hope he gets put into jail for breaking into my apartment, I just _know_ it was him.”

“I’m so sorry that you had to deal with that,” Chanyeol meant it; he would never allow Baekhyun to suffer like that again, not when he was here now, it was like fate was giving Baekhyun a break, giving him to someone who cared, and Chanyeol would care, he would devote his entire life to make Baekhyun happy and safe.

“It’s life, so I’ve learned,” Baekhyun replied hollowly.

This time, Chanyeol reached across the table and wrapped his hand around Baekhyun’s thinner hand, his expression set with finality, “You don’t have to shoulder this all alone, I’m here.  I don’t have many friends…and I’m still learning how to properly treat you as one, but I promise I won’t ever turn my back to you if you need to talk, okay?  You won’t ever bother me if you come to me, it’s hard to deal with stuff when you’re adult, because you don’t have all the friends you used to have back in high school or college, or if you do, it feels burdensome to vent, but I won’t let you drown in sadness.”

“You’re a good person, Chanyeol,” Baekhyun whispered, voice wavering quietly.  He looked down and bit at his bottom lip before looking back up at Chanyeol bashfully, “But there is one more thing I have to tell you, or rather, ask you.”

“Sure thing, what is it?” Chanyeol prompted him.

“How long have you liked me?” Baekhyun asked him, clearness to his tone, eyes peering at Chanyeol curiously. 

It was a cold rush of nervousness that doused Chanyeol into fear, thinking that this could be it for him and Baekhyun’s friendship or any attempt for something new, from what he could tell, Baekhyun didn’t looked upset or uncomfortable, but he also worked in a law firm and had to have some legal experience where he could keep his expressions neutral during important situations.

Chanyeol had to choose his words carefully, he couldn’t play nonchalance, as if friend crushes were normal, mostly because he knew how sensitive Baekhyun was, even if the shorter man never showed how vulnerable he actually was; Chanyeol had only witnessed the surface of it when Baekhyun had told Hyuk-woo off or when he had confessed his fear of being home alone.

“It…was a bit of a slow process for me, mostly because I don’t date often, the affection I feel for you, I figured it ran deeper because you and have so much in common and you’re just so easy to get along with,” Chanyeol started off carefully, pulling his hand back from where he was gripping Baekhyun around the wrist, but the those nimble fingers rested on top of his hand.  “I don’t really know where the friendship line blurred in with…a crush, God, that’s _so_ childish to say,” he chuckled nervously.  _It’s not even a crush Baekhyun, I could spend every waking moment with you and cherish every second of it and hate when I have to close my eyes to sleep._

Baekhyun gave him a small grin, “It’s how it starts off, no matter how childish it seems, because budding attraction sounds too old fashion.”

Chanyeol agreed with that and he sighed softly, making it seem like he was really thinking when he started to like Baekhyun more than a friend, “I think…it may have begun after the weekend of Yixing’s.”

“ _Really_?” Baekhyun was in disbelief at that information.  “I was hungover and throwing up, how the hell did you start liking me after that?!  I didn’t even like myself!”

“I don’t know, the hormone chemicals in my brain said otherwise,” Chanyeol shrugged and saw Baekhyun’s baffled expression, “What?  You know you don’t actually feel things with your heart, it’s all the brain’s work, the pounding heart and nerves that make you feel jittery with adoration or feeling like you can’t breathe when you see someone you’ve missed or yearn for, it’s all a neurological reaction.”

Baekhyun just laughed softly, “I’ve just never heard someone directly call out that it’s the brain doing all the work, when we’ve all just heard over and over that the heart fluttering was linked with adoration and it’s actually just heart palpitations.”

“It’s not romantic when it could turn out to be a heart disease,” Chanyeol stated matter-of-factly and smiled brightly when Baekhyun let out a startled laugh.  “But I mean it’s nicer to hear someone say “I heart you” versus “I brain you” and draw a brain around the person’s name, not mention that sounds sort of threatening.”

“You’re too much,” Baekhyun giggled, poking Chanyeol’s hand affectionally. 

“So I’ve been told by my co-worker friend,” Chanyeol rolled his eyes, but he was still grinning.  He still gave a convincing sheepish smile, “I’m sorry if I’ve made it weird, I don’t want you to think that I was only doing this because I like you, I mean, I do like you, friendly wise, and…and other liking you wise- _crush_ wise, ugh, I just—”

“Chanyeol,” Baekhyun interrupted, smiling softly, “I like you too.”

“O-oh,” Chanyeol was actually a little shocked from that confession, he thought he was going to have to work for Baekhyun’s affections, especially due to his last relationship. 

Baekhyun laughed at his lack of words, “Oh?” he teased.

“I’m an IT, Baekhyun, most of my job is done behind a screen or repeating the same things over and over,” Chanyeol blushed and heard Baekhyun giggling again.

“Your lack of words is pretty much a good thing, because actually, you are good with words and so…so _suave_ , you’re normally so collected and it’s nice seeing that you’re just a normal person,” Baekhyun replied.

Chanyeol didn’t really know how to reply to that, as he never received compliments like that, “I…no one has ever said that before.”

“Well, I promise you’ll hear much more of it,” Baekhyun stated happily before freezing up.  “I-if you still want to date, Jesus, I’m so sorry, I’m just forcing this on you!”

“You’re not,” Chanyeol reassured him.  “I do want to go out with you, I’m sorry that you had to find out this way…”

“It was mostly through Jongdae,” Baekhyun was a little reluctantly to admit.  “He said that friends helped friends this way, but apparently it was different with us… he just assumed that you and I were sleeping together.”

“You’re not easy,” Chanyeol frowned, a small slip-up, as his social media surfing proved to him that Baekhyun was so far a modest person, he didn’t post couple pictures, nor gooey sentimental posts, Baekhyun didn’t have promiscuous pictures or even ones that flirted with that idea; he kept his accounts simple and sweet, just like him.

Baekhyun bashfully looked away, “You may think otherwise…”

Chanyeol’s Adam’s apple bobbed at the implication, “Can’t say I’m too innocent in that department either,” he blurted, a racing zing of heatedness racing down his spine.

“Then show me your room,” Baekhyun pushed himself away from the table, breakfast long forgotten.  Chanyeol was not a new wet dream to him, reality was so much better, everything was in such finer, crisp detail that his breath was momentarily taken away, especially when Chanyeol came to him, looming and dark eyed with desire.

Chanyeol whisked Baekhyun away from the table, lifting him easily, arms steadily supporting Baekhyun as they kissed, Chanyeol didn’t mind the angle, he rather liked having Baekhyun comb his fingers through his hair, like the way Baekhyun held him close, kissing him with a soft bite.

It was a little hard to maneuver his way to his bedroom, as he had to make sure not to bump into anything and accidentally hurt Baekhyun, he groaned softly into the kiss, feeling those plush thighs squeeze around his waist, his hands cradled Baekhyun’s bottom too and he felt Baekhyun’s breath become shaky when he squeezed him.

Chanyeol eased Baekhyun down slowly onto the bed, his hands immediately slid up Baekhyun’s sides, pushing under the large shirt he wore to bed; his skin was so soft, so warm, it made Chanyeol ache with want, a want to press kisses all over his skin, to map out every millimeter of exposed skin.

His hips rocked forward suddenly, hard and firmly down against Baekhyun and Chanyeol nearly dissolved right then and there when Baekhyun let out a breathy moan.

The fantasies did not compare to the real moment, for the both of them, at least.  Chanyeol would never grow tired with the touch of Baekhyun’s soft hands, delicate as they looked, they were strong when kneading at his biceps and Chanyeol kissed Baekhyun all that more deeply.

The muffled moan that Chanyeol let out had Baekhyun wrapping a leg around Chanyeol’s strong waist, pulling himself up closer, as Chanyeol was already on his hands and knees, draped across Baekhyun as he ravished his mouth with slow, yet sensational kisses, the occasional shy slip of the tongue was not unwelcome, and Baekhyun cupped Chanyeol’s face to keep him close.

The arm that Chanyeol had braced on the mattress by Baekhyun’s head, his hand curled into a fist as pleasure wracked through him, he slowly caressed his hand up Baekhyun’s side, feeling him shiver at the ticklish sensation. 

“Clothes,” Baekhyun murmured, pulling back just barely a centimeter, eyes half-lidded as he drank in the sight of Chanyeol; he loved seeing a blush across Chanyeol’s cheeks, the way his full lips were parted as he breathed deeply, his eyes were so dark, but yet so beautiful in morning light that filtered in the room; Baekhyun was awestruck to have such a genuine person like Chanyeol, have him like this, to have those feelings returned, but deeper and not just for intimacy.

Chanyeol pushed himself up to his knees, pulling his shirt over his head slowly and tossed it to the side, he looked down and saw Baekhyun lick his lips briefly; he started to feel self-conscious, but it was hard to remain like that when Baekhyun was looking up at him with such a wanting expression.

Baekhyun figured it was his turn and grabbed the hem of his sleep shirt and pulled it up over his head, he arched when he had warm, large hands ghosting up his sides and he didn’t even have the chance to toss it to the floor before Chanyeol was on him again.  He let out a happy sigh when Chanyeol’s lips were warm against his neck, thumbs massaging on his hips, “ _Yeol_ ,” Baekhyun murmured.

Chanyeol knew to pick up a cue when it was given to him, he kissed Baekhyun, pulling back slowly, “Be right back,” he murmured and went to his closet and tore into the box of condoms, and the unopened bottle of lube before coming back over to Baekhyun.

Baekhyun gave him a curious look when Chanyeol came back over, “You were prepared?”

“I…” Chanyeol trailed off at Baekhyun’s serious look, feeling nervous, but felt himself relax when Baekhyun’s cute face morphed into a teasing grin.

“I loved a man who’s prepared,” Baekhyun winked and giggled when he saw Chanyeol looked relieved.  He pushed himself up until he was standing on his knees and pulled Chanyeol into a soft kiss, “Don’t be embarrassed,” he murmured.

“I didn’t want you to get the wrong idea,” Chanyeol frowned, it was difficult to keep feeling put off and _caught_ like he was being pushy when Baekhyun was pushed up against him, their boxers were literally the only two things keeping them from complete skin contact.  With that reminder, Chanyeol wanted to change that, he guided Baekhyun back down, lube and condom packet discarded next to them as he kissed Baekhyun softly.

Baekhyun pushed his hips up against Chanyeol’s, getting slightly impatient, “I’m not getting the wrong idea,” he reassured him a bit breathlessly.  He shivered when he felt Chanyeol’s warm hand ghost down his hip before pushing past the hem of his boxers and finally squeezed at him, Baekhyun squirmed, wanting to thrust up, wet enough that it wouldn’t chafe.

Chanyeol carefully caged Baekhyun under him, fingers wove into Baekhyun’s hair at the back of his head as he kissed him more firmly as he let Baekhyun rock the best he could up into his hand, not that Chanyeol was giving him much space to do as he pleased.  Through the biting nails clinging to his shoulders, it was evident to Chanyeol that Baekhyun liked the small bit of control that Chanyeol took from him.

“If you don’t fuck me soon—”

Chanyeol felt smug when he heard Baekhyun’s sentence get cut off with a shaky breath as he slid the pad of his thumb over the tip of Baekhyun’s dick, “I get your point,” he murmured, pulling back completely, not without slowly stroking down the length of Baekhyun’s dick, feeling giddy as the soft, low moan that Baekhyun released along with the pleasured shiver fit his body went through.

Baekhyun whined a bit when Chanyeol pulled him from the bed, standing him up, but the warm kiss was worth it, he let Chanyeol push down his boxers before freeing him completely by pushing a foot between Baekhyun’s legs and pushed his boxers to the ground.  That had sharp tingle racing up Baekhyun’s spine and distracted him long enough that Chanyeol was completely bare and taking Baekhyun back down onto the bed, he grinned when Chanyeol cracked open the lube, kissed him, nudged his legs further apart and carefully pushed a finger in before pushing in another, working Baekhyun open slowly.

Chanyeol drank in every soft sigh Baekhyun released and only felt himself get more riled up with each warm, soft kiss, lips so malleable against his own.  He felt Baekhyun pull back with a light gasp and Chanyeol nibbled on Baekhyun’s neck before rubbing his fingers in that had Baekhyun moaning.

“Come on,” Baekhyun grumbled.  He felt his dick twitch when Chanyeol twisted his fingers, “ _Please_.”

“Better,” Chanyeol’s grin was sharp and he relented to Baekhyun’s plea and slid on the condom.  He lined up against Baekhyun and pushed in slowly, hearing Baekhyun’s satisfied sigh, “Good, sweetheart?” he murmured, rocking steadily against Baekhyun, feeling Baekhyun’s nails digging into his shoulder blades, pulling him in closer.

Baekhyun tightened his knees around Chanyeol’s waist, he gasped as Chanyeol’s hand tightened around him, he should have felt a little embarrassed at how quickly he was leaking and that Chanyeol could use his precoma like lube, but he was too lost in the feeling of Chanyeol fucking into him perfectly, while his thick fingers wrapped around his dick, grip slickened, easing the friction.

The hooded gaze Chanyeol gave Baekhyun was not seen by the man writhing under him, Baekhyun’s eyes were squeezed shut in utter bliss, head tilted back, lips parted and releasing pleased sounds, Chanyeol’s name thrown into the mix.  Chanyeol bit at the collarbone, the soft skin pulled taut over the bone and it made Chanyeol feel thrilled that he was causing Baekhyun to act this way.  The arm he was resting on for elevation started to twinge in discomfort from supporting some of his weight, but Chanyeol pushed through it; he stroked Baekhyun through his orgasm, feeling the lithe thighs tighten around him, Baekhyun’s tapered gasp, turning into a moan of Chanyeol’s name; utterly satisfied.

Chanyeol didn’t last a moment after that.

He rasped his tongue over the light, salty taste of sweat that was starting to cool in the dip of Baekhyun’s clavicle, before turning to kiss up Baekhyun’s neck; Chanyeol could feel the hammering pulse under his lips.  Chanyeol met Baekhyun for a kiss, smooth lips against his own, feeling the breath that Baekhyun was trying to calm; it made Chanyeol so, so happy that he could reduce Baekhyun to a shivering, yet satisfied mess.

Baekhyun’s eyes were just barely open, eyelashes fluttering when Chanyeol deepened the kiss, tongue sliding against his briefly before pulling back to allow them both to breathe.  He shakily exhaled after a moment, “Jesus, Chanyeol,” he said weakly, breath stuttering out a soft curse at the coquettish grin that slid onto Chanyeol’s face.

Chanyeol eased his way out, feeling Baekhyun’s nails scrape down his sides before fisting the sheets under them.  He tied off the condom before rising off the bed to dispose of it and returned with a warm cloth and felt a harsh flutter of affection take over him when Baekhyun relaxed under his touch as he wiped off Baekhyun’s stomach in soft strokes.

Baekhyun opened his arms when Chanyeol returned to him again, a small smile on his face, eyes blinking sleepily.  He giggled softly when Chanyeol loomed over him, kissing him softly, “Aren’t you tired?”

“Mm,” Chanyeol hummed, eyes closed as he nosed along the soft, warm skin of Baekhyun’s neck.  He pressed one more kiss there before moving off him and flopped onto his front with a exhausted sigh and watched Baekhyun roll onto his side, and Chanyeol gently traced a finger down Baekhyun’s soft cheek, drinking in the sight.

Baekhyun snuggled happily against Chanyeol when the taller circled is arm around him and pulled him close and the blanket cocooned them and Baekhyun has never felt more safe and relaxed.  He closed his eyes when Chanyeol began to trace patterns into the bare skin of his shoulder and felt himself drift off, warm and content.


End file.
